Rosa Parks, the woman who whose refusal to go to the back of the bus helped advance the equal rights movement, died today.
On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Parks refused to obey a public bus driver’s orders to move to the back of the bus to make extra seats for whites. Rosa was tired of being treated as a second-class citizen and held her ground. She was arrested, tried, and convicted for disorderly conduct as well as for violating a local ordinance.
The very next night, 50 leaders of the African American community, headed by relatively unknown minister Martin Luther King, Jr. gathered to discuss the proper actions to be taken after Mrs. Parks’ arrest. What ensued next was the Montgomery Bus Boycott. She was 92. The entire black community boycotted public buses for 381 days. Dozens of public buses stood idle for months until the law legalizing segregation in public buses was lifted. This event helped spark many other protests against segregation. Through her role in initiating this boycott, Rosa Parks helped make other Americans aware of the civil rights struggle.
In 1956 Parks’s case ultimately resulted in United States Supreme Court’s ruling that segregated bus service was unconstitutional.
She was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999
She will, or should be, remembered as a hero by people of all hues.
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