Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks is an emblematic figure of the protest movement against racism and racial segregation.  

Her courage and determination as Rosa Parks inspired millions of people around the world and earned respect.

She, alone,  has changed the course of history and the lives of all the black people in the world.

Yet she was not destined to become the icon of civil rights in America as we know it today and the "Mother" of the movement that would lead to the abolition of racial segregation. This woman has played a major role in the history of human freedom and this is what we will see in her autobiography "Rosa Parks: My Story".

Rosa Louise Mac Cauley was born on February 4 in Tuskegee, Alabama (USA).

She is the daughter of James Mac Cauley, a carpenter, and Leona Mac Cauley, a teacher.

In her autobiography, she recounts how her grandfather stood guard in front of the farm with a gun in his hand because of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) who terrorized, lynched and burned blacks.

His grandfather therefore instilled in him from an early age the principles of social justice, dignity and pride in her origins by leaving her the following sentence as a leitmotif:

"Never accept unfair treatment, wherever it comes from, and never give up in the face of injustice.

All her life, she is confronted with daily racism, she tells that in her town there were fountains reserved for Whites and others for Blacks, and she thought that the water of Whites tasted better than that of Blacks.

In 1924, at the age of 11, her mother sent her to Montgomery "Industrial School for Girls in Montgomery" to continue her studies, but she was forced to drop out of school in 1929 to take care of her mother and grandmother, both of whom were ill.

She became a seamstress in 1930.

In 1932, she married Raymond Parks, a civil rights activist and barber of her state. He encouraged Rosa to continue her studies, which she completed two years later.

At that time, her husband, Raymond, was very committed and despite segregationist laws, Jim Crow, they were both members of the Voter's League in 1940, an association that campaigns for the right to vote for Black people.

Her awareness increased when she got a job at Maxwell Air Force Base. She writes in her biography: "One could say that Maxwell's base opened my eyes".

In 1943, she became a member of the American Civil Rights Movement, which campaigns for black rights by dismantling racial discrimination in education and public transport.

Being the ONLY woman, Rosa Parks says in her biography that she was too shy to no accept the position of secretary.

On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks had the courage to say "NO" to racial segregation in the United States. She refused to obey the order given to her by the bus driver to give up her place to a white man and to sit at the back of the bus.

The other three blacks who were there had given up their place. Rosa Parks refuses to get up.

 Her action constitutes a violation of a racist law of this state, and he will trigger the process of desegregation. To the police officer who came to arrest him, she asked him the following question:

"Why so many persecutions? "The latter to answer: "I don't know, but the law and the law and I arrest you. »

Rosa Parks will be arrested by the police and fined.

 Rosa Parks, who at the time was a 42-year-old seamstress, said in her book that she knew, that from that day on, "This would be the last time I would suffer such humiliation on the bus"

This led to a vast historical boycott and bus strike movement.

According to the segregationist laws of the time, the first 4 rows of buses were reserved for white people.

Blacks accounted for nearly 80% of users,  but were forced to sit in the back to give up their seats to whites.

They would go up to pay 10 cents and then come down to the space reserved for them. If they were sitting in the middle zone, and a white man was asking for their place, then they had to give way and go to the back of the bus or get off the bus.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Park recognized the driver who had thrown her off the bus 12 years earlier, because she had refused to get out of the bus and go back to the back as required by local regulations.

In her book she explains her gesture: "It has often been said that I refused to give up my place that day because I was too tired, but that is not true. I didn't feel physically tired, or at least not as usual after work, that it was impossible for me to move my feet, that my feet hurt. However, it was not at my feet that I was in pain; but in my heart as a human being. My fatigue was rather moral. I was tired of always following white people's orders without protesting. Above all, I was tired of having to surrender. »

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