Black History Month

Tuskegee in Alabama was the town where Rosa Parks was born. Rosa's mother and father was a teacher and a carpenter and she had a little brother called Sylvester . At high school Rosa studied hard, but at the age of 16 she had to leave to care for her sick mother. Rosa married a barber called Raymond Parks at the age of 19.

Was life hard for African Americans?

Life was hard for African Americans like Rosa Parks and in the late 19th century laws were introduced that Africans Americans should be separated but equal from white people. White people and black people were separated in schools, offices, restaurants, toilets, libraries, transport and even waiting rooms. Black people had less rights than white people: if a black person was on a bus seat and there were no seats left on the bus, the black person would have to give up their seat.

What did Rosa Parks do?

In the face of such racism, Rosa Parks couldn't stand by it so she decided to stand for what was right and what changes had to made. Together,her and her husband joined National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People ( NAACP) to put an end to discrimination and segregation. That was the day when Rosa Parks was just coming back from work when she boarded the bus to get back home when a white man boarded the same bus. The bus filled very quickly so all the black people gave up their seats except for Rosa Parks: that day she was sent to prison as she was breaking the law, she said the law was wrong not her behaviour.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

From 5th December 1955, African Americans refused to travel on buses and the black citizens of Montgomery came together and agreed to boycott the city's buses in protest.The boycott was managed by an organisation called the Montgomery Improvement Association, for which Dr Martin Luther King Jr was elected as leader. Rosa became known as “the mother of the civil rights movement”.