1. Ih February 1956,
Rosa Parks was
arrested a second
time, for her role in
the Montgomery
bus boycott.
The Mother of a Movement
Rosa Parks, a hero
in the struggle for
equal rights, was
born 100 years ago
'words to Know*"
defiance (dih-FYE-uhnss) noun, a
refusal to follow rules or directions
boycott (BOI-kot) noun, a type of
protest in which people refuse to
use a service or buy a product
O
n December 1, 1955, a
black woman named
Rosa Parks took a
stand that would
change the nation. She was
arrested while riding a city bus in
Montgomery, Alabama. The
charge: Refusing to give up her
seat to a white man. Her defiance
helped spark the civil rights
movement, when African-
Americans and others worked to
gain equal rights.
Born on February 4,1913,
Rosa Parks would have turned
100 this year. Parks died in 2005,
but her legacy lives on.
Taking a Stand
On the day she was arrested.
Parks was riding a city bus home
from her job at a department
store. She was sitting in the fifth
row, with three other black
passengers. After a few stops, the
first four rows filled up, and a
The Endof
Segregation
By refusing to give up her seat,
Rosa Parks heiped bring an end to
segregation on buses. Here's a iook
at iiow African-Americans gained
equality in other areas of society.
M i l i t a r y America's first group of black
military pilots formed in Tuskegee, Alabama,
in 1941. At the time, military units were
segregated. But the Tuskegee Airmen flew
with honor during World War II ^
(1941-1945) and received many
awards for their skill and bravery. In
1948, President Harry S.Truman Ç _ .
signed an order that would end
segregation in the U.S. military.
4 SCHOLASTIC NEWS EDITION 5/6 • FEBRUARY 4, 2013 • WWW.SCholaSt¡C.COm/sn56
2. white man was left standing. The
driver ordered Parks and the
other riders in her row to give up
their seats. The others obeyed,
but Parks refused to move. The
driver called the police, who took
her away in a squad car.
By refusing to give up her seat.
Parks had broken the law. At that
time, many states and cities in
the South had laws requiring
segregation—the separation of
people based on race. In many
places, black people weren't
allowed to attend the same
schools or eat at the same
restaurants as white people. On
buses, they couldn't sit in the
same section as whites.
Parks challenged the unjust
law. "A lot of other people didn't
disobey the rules because they
didn't want to get into trouble,"
she once told Scholastic readers
in an interview. "I was willing to
get arrested—it was worth the
consequences."
S c h o o l s in 1954, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled that segregated
schools were illegal. But many
Southern schools ignored the ruling.
On September 25,1957, nine black
students entered all-white Central
High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
U.S. troops had to escort the
students to protect them from M
angry mobs. %
Power of the People
Parks spent only a few hours in
jail, but she was later found
guilty by the city court. The
leaders of Montgomery's black
community used her arrest to
challenge the segregation laws.
They organized a boycott of
city buses. Huge numbers of
black people would stop riding
buses to protest segregated
seating. A young minister named
Martin Luther King Jr. was
chosen to lead the boycott.
Beginning December 5,
thousands of black people
walked, took cabs, or carpooled
instead of riding the bus. The
boycott drew the attention of
people nationwide.
Not long after the boycott
began. Parks lost her job and
started receiving death threats.
But she was determined to
support the cause. "I never had
any desire to give up," she said in
the Scholastic interview.
A Long Road to Victory
As the boycott wore on, Parks's
lawyers fought her case in court.
They argued that segregation on
buses violated the Constitution.
The case went all the way to
the U.S. Supreme Court. On
November 13, 1956, the Court
banned segregation on public
buses. African-Americans were
free to sit wherever they wanted.
The Montgomery bus boycott
finally ended after 381 days.
Rosa Parks is often called tbe
"Mother ofthe Civil Rights
Movement." By taking a stand,
she inspired others to protest
unjust laws. When she died in
2005, thousands of mourners
lined up to pay tribute to a
national hero. In a 1987 interview
with PBS, Parks said, "I'd like to
be remembered as a person who
wanted to be free and wanted
other people to be also free."
—Laura Modigliani
'Montgomery
U.S.
Area of r—
""-"-G
Gulfof
Mexico
ik-State capital
• City
R e s t a u r a n t s On February 1,1960, four black
college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, sat at a
"whites-only" lunch counter and refused to leave. This
type of nonviolent j
protest, called a sit-in,
caught on across the i
South, and helped
end segregation at
lunch counters and in •
'•—- restaurants.
www.scholastic.com/snSe SCHOLASTIC NEWS EDITION 5/6 • FEBRUARY 4, 2013 5
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