Rosa Parks essays

Rosa Parks essays On December 1, 1955, seamstress Mrs. Rosa Parks, was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for not standing and letting a white bus rider take her seat, she was found guilty of the crime of disorderly conduct with a fine of fourteen dollars. She was arrested for violating a city law that required all blacks to sit in separate rows on the buses. She refused to give up her seat in the middle of the row when a white person wished to sit in her row. Blacks had to sit in the back and the front rows were for whites only. Rosa Parks was physically tired, but no more than you or I after a long day's work. In fact, under other circumstances, she would have probably given up her seat willingly to a child or elderly person. But this time Parks was tired of the treatment she and other African Americans received every day of their lives, with the racism, segregation, and laws of the time. Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, was arrested December 1, 1955. (Note: It was an "established rule" in the American sou th (at that time) that African-American bus riders had to sit at the back of the bus. African-American riders were also expected to surrender their seat to a white bus rider if it was needed.) Mrs. Parks was not the first African-American to be arrested for this crime but she was the first to be arrested who was well known in the Montgomery African-American community. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery. He and other African-American community leaders felt a protest of some kind was needed. A meeting was called and an overflowing crowd came to the church to hear his words. Dr. King told the crowd that the only way they could fight back would be to boycott the bus company. Then Dr. King and the other African-American community leaders held another meeting to organize future action. They named their organization the Montgomery Improvement Association and elected Dr. King as its president. ...