A Girl Named Rosa

• A Place Called Pine Level
• Lessons in Being Brave
• Leaving Home to Learn
• Black and White
• Getting Involved
• A Serious Choice
• A Girl Named Marley

A Place Called Pine Level

Rosa Louise McCauley was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4th, 1913. Her mother, Leona, was a teacher, and her father, James, built houses. When Rosa and her brother, Sylvester were young, her father left to find better work. Her mother moved with the kids to Pine Level, Alabama, to live with their grandparents.

Pine Level was a small community. Many people worked on farms. Rosa’s uncle was a minister. Going to church became a favorite and important part of Rosa’s life. When Rosa’s parents officially separated, her father never came back to live with the family, and her mother had to get a new teaching job.

The school Rosa’s mother worked at was in another town, so Rosa’s mother was only able to spend weekends with Rosa and Sylvester. Rosa loved spending time with her grandparents. They went fishing, learned to plant corn, and milked cows, with their grandfather. Rosa’s grandmother taught her how to cook, sew, and make quilts. Although Rosa’s grandparents taught her to do many things, they also helped her to understand that their lives are different from the lives of their white neighbors.

Lessons in Being Brave

One of the most important lessons Rosa learned from her grandparents was how to respect herself, even when others didn’t. Many white people didn’t want African Americans to have equal rights. In some states there were laws to keep black people separated from whites. They didn’t want African Americans to vote to change any laws. The laws told black people where they could live, shop, or sit in the movies. There were separate hospitals for blacks and whites, and in some states white nurses couldn’t treat black patients. Black people weren’t even allowed to walk into places using the same entrances as white people.

Across the country there were groups of white people who used violence to frighten, and sometimes hurt, black people. In Rosa’s community, gangs of white men wearing robes and masks sometimes attacked black people. They’d set fire to their churches, schools, and homes. The violence got so bad that many people did not feel safe. When Rosa was five or six, her aunt and cousins stayed at her grandparents’ house each night. They would board their windows so no one could break in, and the family kept clothes on in case they had to escape quickly. Rosa’s grandfather would sit up all night to protect his family. Watching him, Rosa learned to not be afraid of the dangerous or hardships she might face.

Leaving Home to Learn

Rosa learned to read and count before she started school. When she was six, she began school at the black elementary school in Pine Level. There was one teacher for all grades. The white elementary school had a different teacher for each grade. Rosa and the other black children had to walk to school no matter how far away they lived. Even though there was a school bus, that was reserved for the white children. Sometimes the white children would throw things at Rosa and her friends from the windows. They would need to duck into the ditch to avoid getting hit.

Many black children in the South only went to school for a few months out of the year. When they weren’t in school, they would pick cotton alongside their family, earning only a few cents each day. Rosa was proud of the hard work she could do but she always wanted to go back to school.

When Rosa got older, they realized there was no black junior or high school in town. So, her mother made the decision to send Rosa away to Montgomery Industrial School. The school was more than twenty miles away, so Rosa would need to live with relatives in Montgomery. At this school all the girls were black. Even the teachers, including Miss Alice White who started the school, were white. Rosa had never had a white teacher before, but she didn’t mind.

At the Montgomery industrial school, Rosa studied math and science. She also learned how to knit and how to take care of a home. Rosa would dream of her future, and she eventually made plans to stay in Montgomery and continue her education.

Black and White

In Alabama, everywhere Rosa looked, things were segregated for black and white people. Black people had different bathrooms. They had different water fountains. Rosa wondered if the water in the white fountains tasted different somehow, but usually the two fountains spread from the same pipes.

Even though things weren’t fair, Rosa always obeyed the laws and never started any trouble, until once when she was walking along a Montgomery street. A white boy tried to knock her down, so she shoved him back. The boy ran to his mother who was standing nearby. Even after Rosa tried to explain, the mother threatened to have Rosa put in jail.

As Rosa grew older, she worked hard to keep racism from making her act out in anger again.

Getting Involved

Even though Rosa wanted to finish high school, she eventually had to drop out to take care of her grandparents and her mother. In between caring for them, she worked a variety of different jobs. When Rosa was eighteen, a friend introduced her to Raymond Parks. In 1932, Rosa and Raymond got married. He encouraged her to complete high school. Raymond also encouraged her to get involved in the civil rights movement. He was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The organization had been formed by a group of black and white people who wanted to end unfair laws.

Rosa Parks became a leader of the Youth Council of the Montgomery NAACP in 1949. She wanted to give young black children what her grandfather had given her: courage and self-respect. These qualities helped Rosa deal with the unjust laws that existed in many states.

One type of unfair law that black people in Montgomery faced each day was about public transportation. On city buses, white riders sat at the front and a certain number of seats at the back were allowed for black riders. Black people had to pay in front and then get off and walk to the rear door of the bus to get on. Sometimes drivers would let black riders pay and then pull away from the curb before they could get to the back door. If all the black seats were taken, black riders had to stand, even if there were empty seats in front. Anyone who broke the rules, or tried to, was arrested.

A Serious Choice

On Thursday, December 1st, 1955, Rosa Parks waited for the bus after work. She paid her fair and went to enter the back door to the black section. She got a seat in a row with two other black people. The bus slowly became crowded, and the white section was full. The driver told black people to get up because there was a white man standing in the aisle. The two people next to Rosa moved, but she decided to not give up her seat. She was tired from that day’s work. She was tired of all the times she was treated unfairly, and she made a serious choice. The driver refused to move the bus. Rosa refused to move. So, the driver called the police.

Rosa was arrested and taken to jail because she would not give up her seat on the city bus. She was released later that night. No one, not even Rosa, imagined what would happen in Montgomery after that. Word spread across the black community about what Rosa had done. Everyone decided they’d had enough, and they decided to protest by not riding the buses. Instead they would walk wherever they needed to go, or they got rides from black and white friends who drove cars.

On December 5th, Rosa Parks went before a judge. At the same time, the Montgomery city buses were empty of black people. They were empty the day after, too. News of the boycott and pictures of Rosa Parks spread throughout the U.S. and the world. The boycott lasted for thirteen months.

In December, 1956, the city of Montgomery ended bus segregation and the boycott ended. The Parks family moved to Detroit, Michigan, where they continued to be active in the civil rights movement. Rosa’s firm belief in fighting non-violently for civil rights never ended. The brave little girl from Alabama became a strong and courageous woman who spent the rest of her life traveling, speaking, and standing up for equality.

A Girl Named Marley

There are a lot of young girls helping to make positive changes in our world today, just like Rosa Parks did. Marley Dias is one of those girls.

Marley noticed that something major was missing from the books she was reading in school. “I wasn’t seeing girls like me—black girls who are smart,” she says. In fact, most of the stories her class was reading in school didn’t feature any characters at all who were black. “The ones that did were very one-dimensional. Black girls are not being portrayed fully,” Marley explains.

So the New Jersey girl, then eleven years old, set out to collect one thousand amazing stories featuring black girls. “Black girls need to see stories about girls like them,” Marley says. “Our voices and stories are so important.” She created the hashtag #1000blackgirlbooks, and her book drive took off. Marley began receiving books from people all over the world. She had collected more than 9,000 books of many different genres.

Marley decided to donate the books to a school in Jamaica, where her mom is from. “We delivered the books in person,” Marley says. “I think it’s important to step out of your comfort zone.” Marley is still collecting books and speaking about the importance of black female characters. “You don’t have to be the best,” she says. “You just have to do your best and do what you love.”