ROSA PARKS

ROSA PARKS, (1913 -2005) was arrested on December 1, 1955, when she refused to give up her seat on a bus. She became known as the First Lady of the Civil Rights Movement and was called “The Mother of the Freedom Movement.”

Rosa Parks has been awarded several times throughout her life for her work in the civil rights movement, and she received the highest honor from President Bill Clinton in 1996 when he presented her with the Medal of Freedom.

Narration:

Civil rights activist, and mother of the Civil Rights Movement. Her name – Rosa Parks.

Born in Alabama in 1913, Rosa Louise McCauley grew up in the segregated South.

Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation, and the KKK was extremely active.

She attended a segregated girl’s school, married in 1932, and joined the Civil Rights Movement through the NAACP in 1943.

In 1955 Rosa Parks sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott when she refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger. Parks was arrested and the Boycott, led by Martin Luther King, financially crippled the transit system. It ended in 1956 when a federal ruling declared Alabama’s segregated buses unconstitutional.

Rosa Parks dedicated her life to civil rights and was named, the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement by Congress.

Rosa Parks – A Great American

Credits: Editor: Stacy T. Holmes, ACE, Narrator: Steve Schy, Music: PartnersinRhyme.com, Digital Collection: Library of Congress, Copyright: CBN Communications