One person can cause an effect

Her grandparents were slaves.  She attended a segregated school.  Little did she know the impact of one action would change the course of our history.  Meet Rosa Parks.

It was a cold winter early evening in the capital city of Montgomery.  Rosa just finished a full day at work. As the public bus approached, she dug through her purse to find the fare.  She entered the front of the bus only to pay.  She exited the bus to re-enter at the back like rest of the blacks.  She sat down directly behind the white taped line separating the blacks from the whites.  The bus filled to capacity, leaving one white man without a seat.  The bus driver literally moved the white taped line back a few rows so the white folks would not have to stand.  He then told Rosa and three others to vacate their seats.  Rosa refused.

Rosa Parks was arrested.  “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired,” wrote Parks in her autobiography, “but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically… No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) went quickly into action. Over 35,000 flyers were sent home with black school students asking the parents to boycott riding the public bus on Rosa Parks’ trial date. Thousands walked miles to work that day. After three hundred eighty-one days of boycotting the public buses, the Supreme Court declared segregation on public transportation was unconstitutional. One person, one action, and 40,000 boycotters changed American History. On June 15, 1999, Rosa Parks received the highest award bestowed by the US government - Congressional Gold Medal.
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There is so much more to this story. There is so much more to her life. Learn more through Rosa Parks’ own words in her autobiography writing - Rosa Parks, My Story.