| As a teenager
Rosa attended Booker T. Washington Junior High School in Montgomery,
and participated in a high school program at State Teachers College
(now Alabama State University). In December 1932 she married Raymond
Parks, a 29-year old barber. She helped support the family by sewing
and doing other jobs.
As Rosa got older she saw many things
around her that were not fair for African-Americans and made up her
mind to make some changes. She and her husband tried to help the "Scottsboro
boys" in 1931, who were nine young African-American boys that were accused
of a crime they did not commit. She tried to register to vote in 1943
but was not allowed. It wasn't until her third try in 1945 that she
was allowed to vote.
At this time, African-Americans were
not allowed to ride at the front of the bus and had to get onto the
bus from the back door. Also, if the white section of the bus was full
the African-Americans would have to give up their seats to the whites.
Rosa Parks knew how wrong this was. She first fought these rules by
boarding the bus from the front door. The bus driver made her get off
the bus and would not let her ride. On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery,
Alabama Rosa was riding home from work on the Cleveland Avenue bus line
when she refused to give up her place in the front row of the "colored
section" to a white man who could find no seat in the section reserved
for whites. Rosa was arrested, jailed and eventually convicted of violating
segregation laws. Her action led to the Montgomery bus boycott. This
meant that African-Americans in Montgomery, Alabama refused to ride
the bus until the laws were changed. The boycott lasted for more than
a year and in the end the laws that segregated transportation, like
buses, were changed.
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Rosa Louise Parks Word phrase
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