AMC

Rosa Parks embodies the fight against racial segregation in the

United States.
An African-American, she was born in
Alabama
Alabama, a southern state marked by racial segregation and the violence of the Ku
Klux Klan. From the age of 19, Rosa Parks campaigned alongside her husband in the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1955, after
refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, she became the
figurehead of the civil rights movement.

The buses were divided in two, with a dividing line down the middle. Seats at the
front of the bus were reserved for whites. The seats at the back were reserved for
blacks. It was strictly forbidden to sit in the seats reserved for whites.
On December 1, 1955, she sat on a seat at the front of the bus. The driver asked
her to give up her seat to a white man who had no more room to sit. She refused. In
doing so, she violated city law. She was arrested and fined $15. His arrest
provoked a huge wave of protest. A young local pastor, Martin Luther King,
organized a bus boycott.
The movement gained momentum.
For 380 days, blacks refused to take the bus. Rosa Parks' values centered on human
dignity, justice and equality for all, regardless of skin color. She firmly
believed in the need for peaceful resistance to injustice and oppression. In the
end, his gesture had many consequences. In 1956, the Supreme Court declared that
racial segregation did not respect American law. It was a great victory. This
decision was followed by others prohibiting all forms of discrimination in public
places, and abolishing the taxes to which blacks were subject if they wished to
vote. Blacks finally had the same rights as whites. No more differences. She became
the symbol of the struggle for equality and justice. She earned the nickname
"Mother of the Civil Rights Movement".
After these events, she lost her job.
She went to work as a seamstress in Detroit, before becoming a congressman's
secretary. She died on October 24, 2005.
Her actions were recognized by all. Rosa Parks was awarded the Medal of Freedom by
Bill Clinton, then President of the United States. She even received a public
tribute after my death. She was the first woman in the United States to receive
this
honor.