Research Paper: Rosa Parks

The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement Rosa Parks is one of the most famous people in the history of the American Civil Rights movement, for her refusal to “move to the back of the bus” on December 1, 1955. Although her moment of protest was not a planned event , it certainly proved to be a momentous one. The nature of Rosa Park’s protest, the response of the authorities of Montgomery, the tactics adopted by the civil rights leaders in Montgomery, and the role eventually played by Federal authority, were all aspects of this particular situation that were to be repeated again and again in the struggle for equality of race. Rosa Parks’ action, and the complex combination of events that followed, in some measure, foreshadowed a great deal of the history of the civil rights movement over the next decade. Obeying the law can change history in an instance, even if you’re actions don’t express it, it will later on affect society. After the arrest of Rosa Parks, black people of Montgomery and sympathizers of other races organized and promoted a boycott of the city bus line that lasted 381 days. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was appointed the spokesperson for the Bus Boycott and taught nonviolence to all participants. Contingent with the protest in Montgomery, others took shape throughout the south and the country. They took form as sit-ins, eat-ins, swim-ins, and similar causes. Thousands of courageous people joined the "protest" to demand equal rights for all people. As of my opinion, we should all be questioning the fact on how brave someone can be

when it comes to comforting the law or breaking it like Rosa Parks. Some people just go along and break it and end up in jail. Some just don’t do and avoid going to jail. A lot of people today aren’t as brave as Rosa Parks today. They don’t care or just don’t have the understanding that one’s action can lead to a chain reaction. From a web source the author paraphrases that, even though Rosa Parks fought for civil rights in

Cited: Page "Official Website - Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute." Official Website - Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2011. . Parks, Rosa, and James Haskins. Rosa Parks: my story. New York: Dial Books, 1992. Print.