Rosa Parks Research Paper

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WASHINGTON — Rosa Parks was a hero in the fight to win equal rights for African-Americans. In 1955, Parks was arrested when she refused to give up her bus seat for a white male rider. At the time, buses had different seating areas for blacks and whites. This was known as segregation. When bus seats for whites were filled up, blacks were supposed to give up their own seats. Then they were supposed to move to the back of the bus to the section for blacks. Parks refused to get up when the bus driver ordered her to, so she was arrested. Her courage inspired others to fight segregation on buses. Protesters Are Not Always Angry Parks never acted like an angry protester, though. She always seemed proper, gentle and ladylike. She certainly did not seem militant — that is, forceful…show more content…
In 1955 Parks was working at the Montgomery Fair department store. Her journals describe how badly she and other black workers were treated by the store. Black workers were forced to eat lunch leaning up against the blacks-only bathroom. Her journals also show her anger at the killing of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi. Till was killed less than four months before Parks’ arrest. A Clear Picture For History Adrienne Cannon is an expert on African-American history. She says Parks tried hard always to seem shy and proper. During the 1950s, women were not expected to be forceful, particularly black women. Most people would not have reacted well to an angry black woman. If Parks had let all her feelings out she might have hurt her cause, so she tried hard to always seem calm and gentle. However, "in this collection, we hear more of that militant voice,” Cannon said. Cannon thinks Parks kept all her writings because she wanted history to have a complete picture of her. “She held onto them until the end of her life," Canon said. "She wanted us to know the true Rosa Parks.” She Inspired Many

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