A Girl Named Rosa

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.