Rosa Parks is the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.” You might be wondering why is she called the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement”?
Before I answer your question, we need to know some information about her life.
Rosa Parks is also known as Rosa Louise McCauley, who was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4, 1913. When she was 2, she moved with her parents James and Leona McCauley, to Pine Level, Alabama, to live with her mother’s parents. At the age of 11, she moved to Montgomery, Alabama and attended high school there, which was a laboratory school at the Alabama State Teachers’ College for black people. Nonetheless, at the age of 16, she had to leave because she had to care for her dying grandmother and chronically ill mother.
However, in 1932, she married Raymond Parks, who was a self- educated man. They both worked as a seamstress and became respected members of Montgomery’s large African-American community. But, there was a law called the Jim Crow laws, also known as segregation laws. This law made sure that blacks could only attend a specific school, could only drink from specified water fountains, borrow books only from the “black” library, amid other restrictions. During December 1943 Rosa Parks joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP; eventually, she became chapter secretary and worked closely with Edgar Daniel Nixon. Nixon worked as a railroad porter known in the city as an advocate for blacks who wanted to have the right to vote. Upon December 1, 1955, marked one of the most significant events in history. Rosa Parks, who was 42 at the time, was on her way home from a tiring day of work at a department store by the bus. One of the segregation laws stated that the front of the bus was for whites and the back for blacks.
127 our experts are availableright now
After a while, the bus began to fill up, and it was then that the bus driver noticed a few white people standing, and directed Rosa Parks to give up her seat. She protested because she believed that she shouldn’t have to give up her position. The bus driver called the police, and she was arrested, furthermore on December 5 she was found guilty of violating the law. Following her release, the blacks of Montgomery would boycott the busses on the day of Rosa Parks hearing; this was on Monday, December 5. On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court ordered that bus segregation was forbidden and the boycott concluded on December 20.
Tragically, her husband, brother, and mother all died of cancer between 1977 and 1979. During 1987, she co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. Sadly she passed away on October 24, 2005, at the age of 92.
In conclusion, Rosa Parks played a significant role in the civil rights movement and is the main reason both African Americans and whites have equal rights today. Up until 1965, Rosa Parks had to live with segregation. She wanted freedom and the right to go to any place, without people judging her by the color of her skin. Moreover, she had to fight for everything, even the struggles and obstacles she faced throughout the civil rights movement.
Now to answer your question;
The reason why Rosa Parks is called the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement” because she is the first woman of color to fight for racial equality when she refused to give up her seat to a white man.
