Early Life
Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama to James McCauley and Leona Edwards. She suffered poor health and had chronic tonsillitis at an young age. She moved with her mother to Pine Level when her parents separated. She then grew up on a farm with her grandparents, mother, and younger brother, Sylvester. When the Ku Klux Klan would march down their street, Rosa’s grandfather would guard the door with a shotgun. The Montgomery Industrial School where Rosa went to school was burned to the ground twice by arsonists. At the age of 19, Rosa married Raymond Parks at her mother’s house. Raymond was a barber from Montgomery. Raymond urged Rosa to get her high school diploma, and she did. This was at a time when less than 7% of the population of African Americans in 1933 had diplomas. She had numerous jobs ranging from a domestic worker to a hospital aide. In December of 1943, she became a member of the Montgomery chapter of the NACCP.
Montgomery Bus Boycott
After working the day at a department store, Rosa boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus around 6 p.m., Thursday, December 1. She paid her fare and sat in an empty seat in the first row of black seats. Since the front of the bus was filling up the driver demanded that Parks and three others give up here seat to the whites standing. The three others moved, but Parks didn’t. The driver said, “Why don’t you stand up?”, and Parks responded, “I don’t think I should have to stand up.” He called the police to arrest Parks. E.D. Nixon and Clifford Durr bailed her out of jail on December 2. A few days later, Parks was tried for charges of disorderly conduct. She was found guilty and fined $10, plus $4 in court costs.
Work Cited: wikipedia.org
