On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks, a 42 year old African .
American woman on a bus ride home was arrested for refusing to relocate and give her seat to a .
white passenger (Grandtimes.com) . In the midst of segregation, racism, and the Jim Crow laws, .
blacks in the south were heavily discriminated against in nearly all aspects of society. It was law .
that black passengers on the public busses had to give their seats to any white passengers if there .
were no more seats available. When Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to the white passenger, .
the bus driver had her arrested. This sparked one of the key points in the civil rights movements in .
America.
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Rosa McCauley was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama (Time.com) Her .
father was a teacher, her father, a carpenter. She moved to Pine Level, Alabama with her mother .
and brother as a young girl, to live with her grandparents. Rosa attended the Montgomery .
Industrial School for girls, and graduated from the African American Booker T. Washington High .
School in 1928.She attended Alabama State College for a brief time after graduating high school.
In 1932, she married Raymond Parks. Both she and her husband were participants.
in many civil rights causes active at that time. Parks worked with the NAACP Youth Council.
and was elected as secretary of the Montgomery branch in 1943. The group made little progress.
dismantling racial segregation barriers during the 40's and early 50's.
In 1955, Parks was employed as a department store seamstress. On the bus trip home.
from work, Parks refused to give her seat to a white passenger. The driver threatened to have .
parks arrested, and when she refused to move still, the driver stopped the bus and had police .
officers arrest Parks.
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The newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association, and newly elected Reverend .
Martin Luther King, organized a boycott of the public transit in Montgomery Alabama.