ROSA PARKS HEROINE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT CHAPTER ONE 4 In December 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery Alabama Her simple action was very important to the CIVIL RIGHTS movement in the United States Parks was not a powerful or famous person at that time However she was brave and demanded to be treated fairly Rosa Parks was African American AN INSPIRING ACTION The rights of a country’s citizens are called CIVIL RIGHTS They include the right to vote and the right to have an education Vocabulary Box
5 AN INSPIRING ACTION She grew up in a time and place in which racism divided blacks and whites Blacks were not treated Rosa Parks was a quiet woman who made a brave choice in 1955
6 ROSA PARKS HEROINE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT the same as whites There were even laws that made this unfair treatment legal Parks believed things could get better Her small action refusing to give up her bus seat was the beginning of great waves of change that spread throughout the United States Rosa Parks’s story is one that continues to inspire people to try to change the world for the better For about 100 years after the end of slavery many African Americans were still treated unfairly In the 1950s and 1960s that began to change as African Americans fought for equal rights This is known as the civil rights movement Quick Fact
CHAPTER HEAD 7 CHAPTER TWO Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCau ley on February 4 1913 in Tuskegee Alabama When she was very young Rosa her mother and her brother moved to Pine Level Ala bama They lived on a farm owned by Rosa’s grandpar ents Her grandparents told her what they remembered GROWING UP IN ALABAMA Rosa learned about racism at a young age while growing up in the South
