Not Afraid to Take a Stand

You may know her as Rosa Parks, but she really should be known as Lady Freedom. Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. Rosa Parks grew up on a small little farm in Alabama with her maternal grandparents and her brother named Sylvester. Rosa Parks was a very extraordinary student, and was one of the few blacks who went to a college, a State Teacher Collage. Rosa Parks started a lifelong membership at an African Methodist Episcopal Church. This experience was what encouraged her to become a Civil Rights Activist. Later on in her life she was dubbed, " Mother of the Modern Day Civil Rights Movement" On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the middle of the bus. Normally blacks had to sit in the back or in the middle, but if a white did not have a seat then black had to give up their seat in the middle to go sit either in the back or had to stand up. Rosa had a seat in the middle and a white needed a seat. She refused to get up, leaving the white to stand. Rosa took a stand for blacks all over the world, and went to jail because of it. Rosa is quoted as saying "People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically tired, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was 42. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in." This act is now known all over the world. Rosa Parks died October 24, 2005 , but she will always be remembered. If Rosa Parks wouldn't have had the courage to take a stand the world that we know today would not be the same. Today people respect blacks because of what Rosa Parks did. Our world is a better place because of it. So every time you take a look at our peaceful world you think of Rosa, and thank her for her courage.

B.S.