Rosa Parks – #AtoZChallenge

In 1955, civil rights activist Rosa Parks (1913-2005) refused to give up her seat in the “colored section” of a bus to a white passenger. Her act of defiance sparked a boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, and ignited the civil rights movement. The NAACP tapped Park to fight in court for the cause, and in late 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that Montgomery’s segregated seating was unconstitutional.

The bus driver who arrested her, James Blake, had put her off the bus before for a similar violation. She avoided his route for 12 years afterward.
Parks was an active member of the NAACP long before the 1955 bus incident. She served as the secretary for the Montgomery chapter for over a decade and was involved in other campaigns, such as organizing the “Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor”.
At a time when it was uncommon for African Americans to graduate, she earned her high school diploma in 1933. She had dropped out at age 16 to care for her grandmother but returned to school with her husband’s support.
After her arrest and the subsequent bus boycott, her life became dangerous. She and her husband received death threats and had to move to Detroit in 1957. The founder of Little Caesars later paid her rent for years after she was mugged and assaulted in her Detroit home.
A 15-year-old named Claudette Colvin was arrested nine months before Parks for refusing to give up her bus seat in Montgomery. The NAACP decided to wait for a more strategic moment and a more widely recognized figure to serve as the plaintiff for their case, and Parks was the ideal person