The Journey of Civil Rights Activist, Rosa Parks
ESSAY OF ROSA PARKS, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST
Analyze an African American person’s racial identity using one of the racial identity models discussed in our text.
I chose Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, a Civil Rights Activist, known for the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, the same date of her trial for the crime of not giving up her seat on the bus for a White boy because she said, “I’m not moving; my feet hurt”, which at that time in Montgomery, Alabama, segregation on public bus transportation was law, and Blacks had to give up their seats to Whites if there were none for them.
I feel Rosa Louise (McCauley) Parks was definitely in Stage 5 of the Internalization-Commitment within the Nigrescence Model as this Model furnishes the underlying set of ideas, principles, and rules for understanding the importance of race and the meaning of being a member of a racial group. I feel Rosa Louise (McCauley) Parks was at Stage 5 her entire life, having a firm self-identity beginning when she was little, and at a very early age, because of the traditions and principles set forth from her mother and grandparents, but then went on to help oppressed people, for example, supporting and becoming a Civil Rights Activist and making groundbreaking laws for our country with regards to segregation and justice for African American people. Rosa Louise (McCauley) Parks was born in 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama, Her mother and father separated, and her mother took Rosa to live with her mother’s parents on their farm. Her grandparents were both former slaves and also advocates for racial equality. On one occasion, her grandfather stood in front of their house with a shotgun when members of the Ku Klux Klan passed steadily down the street in front of him, giving Rosa a self-identity of herself to be proud of which her grandparents supported. In Pine Level, Alabama, there was a new school building which also had bus transportation, but the African Americans had to walk to a one-room
Analyze an African American person’s racial identity using one of the racial identity models discussed in our text.
I chose Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, a Civil Rights Activist, known for the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, the same date of her trial for the crime of not giving up her seat on the bus for a White boy because she said, “I’m not moving; my feet hurt”, which at that time in Montgomery, Alabama, segregation on public bus transportation was law, and Blacks had to give up their seats to Whites if there were none for them.
I feel Rosa Louise (McCauley) Parks was definitely in Stage 5 of the Internalization-Commitment within the Nigrescence Model as this Model furnishes the underlying set of ideas, principles, and rules for understanding the importance of race and the meaning of being a member of a racial group. I feel Rosa Louise (McCauley) Parks was at Stage 5 her entire life, having a firm self-identity beginning when she was little, and at a very early age, because of the traditions and principles set forth from her mother and grandparents, but then went on to help oppressed people, for example, supporting and becoming a Civil Rights Activist and making groundbreaking laws for our country with regards to segregation and justice for African American people. Rosa Louise (McCauley) Parks was born in 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama, Her mother and father separated, and her mother took Rosa to live with her mother’s parents on their farm. Her grandparents were both former slaves and also advocates for racial equality. On one occasion, her grandfather stood in front of their house with a shotgun when members of the Ku Klux Klan passed steadily down the street in front of him, giving Rosa a self-identity of herself to be proud of which her grandparents supported. In Pine Level, Alabama, there was a new school building which also had bus transportation, but the African Americans had to walk to a one-room
Cited: "Rosa Parks." The Biography Channel. Web. 2011. 20 Jan. 2013 http://www.biography.com/people/groups/black-history/