According to Kevin Kruse, (www.forbes.com), a leader has nothing to do with seniority or one’s position in the hierarchy of a company. It has nothing to do with titles. Just because someone has a lower title, does not mean they are anything lower than everyone else. Anyone can be a leader, whether they are a child, adult, or elderly person. They could be in your place of worship, your neighborhood, your family, or even in your local grocery store. The point is that anyone in the whole wide world can be a leader.
On February 4, 1913, another great leader was born. Her name was Rosa Louise McCauley Parks. She was an American activist in the civil rights movement. She was best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. According to www.nps.gov, because of her great acts, the United States National Congress honored her as “the First Lady of Civil Rights” and “the Mother of the Freedom Movement”. Parks started the freedom movement by refusing to give up her seat on a bus for a white man. Little did she know, her actions would play an important role in American history.
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On the day of February 4, 1913, Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was born. Parks was the first of two children born to her parents, James and Leona McCauley. Her parents were farmers, along with other jobs that they worked as well. She moved with her parents to the town of Pine Level, Alabama when she was only two years old. Shortly after her brother Sylvester was born, her parents separated. After her move to Pine Level, she began living with her grandmother, her brother, and her mother. Then, when she was eleven years old, she moved from Pine Level to Montgomery. She attended high school in Montgomery, Alabama at the State Teachers’ College for Negroes. She left high school at the age of 16 because she had to take on the role of caring for her dying grandmother. Not long after this event occurred, her mother became chronically ill and Rosa had to take care of her too. At the age of 19, in the year of 1932, she married a man named Raymond Parks. Raymond Parks was a self-educated and supportive man. The following year, when Rosa was trying to get her high school diploma, he was there by her side the entire time.
Later in life, both Raymond and Rosa became members of Montgomery’s African American community, which was quite large. The Jim Crow laws were constantly promoting segregation throughout the town. The school system was separated for black and white people. Every single store, school, building, and even church was segregated. There were certain churches for black people and white people. Because white people were seen as dominant or higher in the social class compared to black people, the “white” buildings were in much nicer condition compared to the “black” buildings. Most people would agree that one of the worst things to ever be segregated was the water fountains. If you were seen drinking from the wrong fountain, you would be put in prison. Rosa and her family had to deal with this every day.
In December of 1943, even though Raymond discouraged her from doing this out of fear for her safety, she joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). After she joined, she became the chapter secretary. When she worked she was very close with President Edgar Daniel Nixon. President Nixon worked for a railroad company in the city. He also worked as an advocate for black people. “Nixon also served as president of the local branch of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union,” (www.history.com).
One typical Thursday after Rosa got done with work, on December 1, 1955, she took a bus home. There was a certain segregation system that the people followed: white people will always get the privilege of sitting in the front of the bus and black people have to sit in the back. There were also buses for only a certain race, some for blacks and some for whites. The black people of this particular town usually tried to avoid riding in joined buses in the first place to avoid arguing and other things related to that matter. On this day, Rosa happened to be part of the 70% of black people riding the joined bus. Although, it was the bus driver's option to decide whether he or she should make a black citizen give up their seat for a white citizen. There were some very contradictory laws that were made in Montgomery. One of them stated that segregation must be enforced, but another, though largely ignored, stated that no individual person, white or black, could be asked to give up their bus seat even if there wasn’t any other seat on the bus that was open. At one of the stops on the way home from work, a white man got onto the bus, and coincidentally, there were no seats left for him to sit. The driver of the bus made the decision to tell the first row of the section labeled “colored” to stand and add another row to the “whites” section. There were four people total sitting in the row that was told to move. Three out of the four people stood up and moved. The one that did not move was Rosa Parks. She stood her ground and refused to stand for the rest of the ride instead of giving up her seat just because of her skin color. This was not the first time that Parks had encountered the bus driver. Everyone thinks that this famous event was the first encounter with the bus driver, James Blake, and Rosa Parks, but it was not. Twelve years ago, Rosa walked on the exact same bus. After she stepped onto it, she paid her fee at the front of the bus, like any normal person would do. But, however, there was a rule in place that stated that all back people had to enter and exit the bus through the rear door. She was notified of this rule after paying her fee. She refused to exit the bus and re-enter a second time, so she stood her ground. Blake was furious. Blake took her by the sleeve of her coat and dragged her out of the bus to the rear door. He demanded that she cooperate with him or he would have to call the authorities. Instead of showing weakness to a white man, Parks left the bus.
Www.loc.gov states that “on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested and imprisoned in Montgomery, Alabama, for disorderly conduct when she refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white man. Civil Rights leader E. D. Nixon bailed her out of jail. Rosa did not win her case. She was fined $14.00, including court costs.” When she arrived at the jail, she asked the guard politely for a drink of water but they immediately declined. She was not even allowed to make a call home to let her family know what happened. When her mother found out that she was put into jail, she became terrified. She was very worried for Rosa’s safety. She thought that the guards had beaten Rosa. Once Rosa’s mother found out about her imprisonment, she immediately notified Raymond. During her time in prison, Rosa was very chatty with her cellmate. She had learned that her cellmate had been in jail for a few months before Rosa showed up. Her cellmate went to jail because “she had picked up a hatchet against a boyfriend who has struck her but had been unable to let her family know where she was.” www.rosaparksbiography.org states. Rosa promised her cellmate that she would try to get in touch with her family. After a few weeks, she finally got in contact with the woman’s brother. A few days later, Rosa saw the woman on the street, looking much better than she did behind bars. After President Nixon bailed her out o jail, he realized the amount of racial discrimination and segregation in the town of Montgomery.
Rosa Parks accomplished many amazing things throughout her lifetime. According to www.topinspired.com, she was one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. She received over five different awards for her outstanding actions. The Spingarn Medal, the Martin Luther King Jr. award, was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame, She was made a member of the welcoming party for Nelson Mandela after he was put into prison, and lastly, she was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience award. These are only some of the many awards she was chosen for. a recipient for. She earned all of these awards out of the way she stood up for herself and all of the black people in America. She was one of the many reasons that slavery and racial discrimination were demolished in the United States.
In conclusion, Rosa Parks was a very strong woman. She had persistence, courage, and kindness. She was determined in everything that she put her mind to. She never gave up on what she believed in, no matter what or who the situation involved. She helped shape the world in regard to segregation and racial equality. Rosa Parks perfectly demonstrated how to deal with segregation and racism. Throughout her lifetime, Parks was given more than two dozen doctorates from universities all over the globe that noticed her outstanding work. Her role in the civil rights movement helped our society into the way that it is today. Her outstanding bravery and leadership skills helped efforts all around the world to end racial segregation.
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