Rosa Parks:

Each person must live their life as a model for others said Rosa Parks. The quote states that
Rosa Parks wanted to have equal rights for everyone and make sure that everyone who lived
after her had freedom and a fair and equal life. Rosa Parks was a civil rights activist. She was
known as the first lady of civil rights and the mother of the freedom movement.

Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on February 4th, 1913. Her parents were James and
Leona McCauley which later got seperated so, Rosa and Leona moved in with Leonas parents
(Rosas grandparents). Rosa had one younger brother named Sylvester. Rosa was taught by her
mother at a young age to read. Rosa went on to attend an isolated, one-room school in Pine
Level, Alabama, that often lacked acceptable school supplies. Through the rest of Rosa's
education, she attended isolated schools in Montgomery, including the city's Industrial School for
Girls. In 1929, while in the 11th grade and attending a laboratory school for secondary education
led by the Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes, Rosa left school to attend to both her
sick grandmother and mother back in Pine Level. She never returned to her studying and instead,
she got a job at a shirt factory in Montgomery. With her husband Raymond and his support, Rosa
earned her high school degree in 1933. She soon became actively involved in civil rights issues
by joining the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP in 1943, serving as the chapter's youth leader
as well as secretary to NAACP President E.D. Nixon which is a post she held till 1957.

Rosa Parks was influenced to be a civil rights activist by her grandfather. He answered to the
familys fears of the violent, racist, secret society known as the Ku Klux Klan by keeping a

loaded shotgun nearby. While the very real possibility of Klan violence never happened for her
immediate family, her grandfathers aggressive attitude helped mold her thinking. Rosa Parks
goals were that she wanted freedom for the blacks which meant everyone to have equal rights.
She went through two boycott bus events, she was riding a bus home and back then blacks had to
give up their seats to white people so she refused to give up her seat to a white person and there
soon was trouble.

Rosa Parks also stood up for her race and community. In December 5th all the african-american
leaders gathered to discuss strategies and determined that their boycott effort required a new
organization and strong leadership. Due to the size of participation and boycott the effort to
create a new organization took several months. The segregation sometimes went into violences,
many black churches and black homes were burned. In response to this action, members of the
African-American took legal action to stop this nonsense.

Without Rosa Parks fight and court order there would still be racial discrimination, not that many
equality rights today. Today now people have freedom and care about important civil rights.
After all that drama went on, the government made new rules and those rules were that:

1. Black and white people could sit wherever they wanted to sit.
2. Bus drivers were to respect all riders.
3. Black people were now allowed to apply for driver positions.