Rosa Parks and the Montgomery essays

Rosa Parks and the Montgomery essays Rosa Louise Parks was born Rosa McCauley on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. She was named after her grandmother, Rose Percival. Rosa was raised by her mother, Leona Edward McCauley, on her grandparents farm at Pine Level, a small community outside Montgomery. Rosa received her primary education in a segregated rural school. In 1924 she enrolled at the private Montgomery Industrial School for Girls known as Miss Whites School. It was so named after its principal and cofounder, Alice L. White. All the students were African-Americans, and all the teachers were white women from the North. She married Raymond Parks and began living in Montgomery, Alabama in 1932. In Montgomery, Rosa and Raymond learned about the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP worked to help black people gain their civil rights. In 1943, Rosa joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. She was elected its secretary and assisted the chapters president, Mr. E.D. Nixon. Rosa and Raymond devoted much of their time and energy to the organization. One cause they felt strongly about was the right to vote. On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa refused to give up her bus seat to a white man. When asked to move to let a white bus rider be seated, she refused. She did not argue, and she did not move. The police were called, and Mrs. Parks was arrested. There were 36 seats on each bus operated by Montgomery City Lines, Inc.. The 10 seats in the front were reserved for whites only. Even if there were no whites on the bus, blacks could not sit in the front seats. Instead they had to sit in the last 10 seats of the bus. The bus drivers could choose which passengers sat in the 16 seats in the middle. Blacks could take the seats only if no whites wanted them. Mrs. Parks action led to the Montgomery bus strike, which was the first large scale, organized protest ag...