Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Essay by Snitch_HunterHigh School, 10th gradeB+, May 2004

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History Essay

Segregation is the separation of African Americans and whites in all types of settings. This essay will describe some of the people who put their jobs, homes and lives in danger by challenging segregation. Many have succeeded to win justice by standing up to segregation but many have had set backs due to segregations cruel prejudice and injustice.

A tired Rosa Parks boarded a bus one evening in Montgomery, Alabama. She had worked a full day and wanted to sit down on the bus and relax. By law, the front of the buses was for whites and back was for blacks. Blacks could also sit in the middle section if whites did not need the space. Without a thought, Parks sat in the area in between. Later the white section of the bus was filled, the driver ordered Parks to move but she refused. The police arrived and charged Parks with violating Montgomery's segregation laws.

Rosa Parks believed she had to stop this unjust system. Later after Park's arrest a large meeting of African Americans of Montgomery was arranged to discuss boycotts of the buses. They would achieve nothing if they didn't fight the segregation laws. The African Americans all knew that without them the bus companies would go bankrupt, so this is why they chose this boycott. African Americans walked, rode or had car pools to get to their destinations. The first day of the boycott had been successful, the boycott went on for more than a year and the story spread around the world, Montgomery become known as the walking city. But retaliation and set backs of the boycott occurred, Rosa lost her job at the department store and white authorities began to fight back. King and 80 other boycotters were arrested. Whites relied heavy on...