Monday, June 1, 2009
Alabama and Rosa Parks
In December of 1955, Rosa Parks, a passenger on a Montgomery Bus, was arrested for not letting a white passenger take her seat. Although there was no law for a black to give up their seat to a white, it was an established rule in the American south. Not only did they have to give up their seats to the whites, but African Americans also had to sit in the back of the bus.
Rosa Parks would not follow these rules of the Jim Crow any longer. The consequence of this refusal sent Mrs. Parks to jail. But a bigger consequence was that the whole community refused to ride the bus four days later on December 5, 1955. This boycott was brought on by a well known pastor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. it continued for over a year but not without harassment from the other side. The white community fought back with force including a spike in violence, which included lynching and a home of Dr. King being bombed.
This boycott ended when, on November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court decided that Alabama’s laws were unjust and illegal.
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