Rosa Parks
K'Erika Green Period 5
Rosa Parks was a African American activist from Montgomery, Alabama who fought for African American Rights. Parks is know as the "mother of the civil rights movement", because of her heroic actions on December 1, 1955. On this day after a long and hard day at work Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white male on the city-bus in Montgomery. This act caused her to violate the Jim Crow law that put blacks in the second class citizenship. With that said her mark was now made on the civil rights movement forever.
In the picture above Rosa Parks is in the front of the bus where she refused to give up her seat.
After Parks refused to give up her seat she was taken to the police station to get finger printed and put in jail.
After getting arrested Parks was placed in jail and had to pay a fine of $14 (which she did not pay).
Rosa Parks - Mini Bio
Rosa Parks & Civil Disobedience
Rosa Parks proved to be civilly disobedient through her actions on December 1, 1955. On this day she refused to give up her seat to a white man, which broke the Jim Crow law. What is interesting about her actions was that they weren't based on what others told her to do, but solely on her own intuition. In Henry Thoreau's " Civil Disobedience" he states that, " The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right..."(Thoreau). This basically means that one should follow their own conscience than that of the law, which is exactly what Parks did. She was tired and had a long day and took a seat that best suited her. By refusing to give up her seat showed a desire to follow her own mind rather than in this case the Jim Crow law. Thoreau shows throughout his novel that civil disobedience come from people truly understanding the difference between right and wrong. And those who follow their conscience will prosper.