Rosa Parks

On a cold December 1st night in 1955, Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was leaving work for her Montgomery home. Because she was black, Rosa parks was forced to sit at the back of the bus, like other black people of her time. However, she dared to rebel against the norm, and refused to give up her spot. On that December night, Rosa Parks was in the front of the bus when a white man stepped on. The bus driver ordered her to give up her seat to the white man, but she refused. A police officer arrested her, and she was taken away to jail.

Rosa Parks’ defiance of the law sparked a city-wide bus boycott by colored people all around Montgomery. Her act became an important symbol of the modern day civil rights movement and propelled her into international fame. She received many medals for her act, including the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Spingarn Medal in 1979. Upon her death in 2005, Rosa Parks was granted the posthumous honor of lying in sate at the Capital Rotunda.

Rosa Parks was a very courageous figure. A symbol for generations to come, she stood up to an unfair and unjust law for her own beliefs and for her cause. Like Martin Luther King and other Civil Rights leaders, she sacrificed everything, losing her job and getting arrested in the process. She sat for equality, so future generations could stand tall.

By: Yotam Kasznik and Jonas Pinnau