Rosa Parks :: essays research papers

Racism and prejudice have been preponderating issues in the United States for many years. Being such a study issue is society, racism is also a major theme in one of the best pieces of American Literature, To Kill A Mockingbird. People, particularly African Americans, have been denied basic human rights such as getting a fair trial, eating in a certain restaurant, or sit in certain understructures of public buses. However, in 1955 a muliebrity named genus Rosa Parks took a stand, or more correctly took a seat, on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She refused to give her seat to a white man and was arrested for not doing so. The reasons and consequences and the significance of her stand be comparable in many ways to Atticus Finchs stand in To Kill A Mockingbird. Rosa Parks worked for the equality of all people. She was elect secretary of the Montgomery branch of the National Advancement of Colored People, unsuccessfully attempted to vote many times to prove her point of dis crimination, and had numerous encounters with bus drivers who discriminated against blacks. She was weary of the discrimination she faced due to the Jim Crow laws, which were laws were think to prohibit "blackAmericans from mixing with white Americans" ("Jim Crow Laws"1). Also, due to the Jim Crow laws, blacks were needful to give their seats to white passengers if there were no more vacant seats. This is exactly what happened on December 1, 1955. On her way home from work, Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to a white man and was unawares arrested (National Womens Hall of Fame1). Even though she knew what the consequences were for refusing to leave her seat, she decided to take a stand against a wrong that was the norm in society. She knew that she would be arrested, to date she decided that she would try to make a change. Although her arrest would seem standardised she lost her battle, what followed would be her victory. Rosa Parkss stand was so significant that she is called the fuss of the civil rights movement (National Womens Hall of Fame1). Her arrest served as a throttle valve for a massive boycott for public busses. Led by Martin Luther King, for 381 days, African Americans carpooled, walked, or found other ways of transportation. Despite the harassment everyone confused in the movement faced, the boycott continued and was extremely successful.