Unit 3: Black Lives Matter (TG6)

Unit 3: Black Lives Matter

To what extent has public protest helped African-Americans get closer to equal rights?

Axe 7: Diversity and Inclusion

The Rosa Parks Story – Tired of giving in: The bus ride that changed America (1955)

Rosa Parks can be seen as a hero because she was one of the first women, after Claudette Colvin, who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger in a segregated bus in Montgomery Alabama. Moreover, thanks to this action, she is seen as a hero because everyone remembers her. On top of that, she is also the figure of a bigger movement involving different personalities that also had an impact on the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s.

The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) chose to wait for the right person to challenge the bus segregation laws so that they would not be blamed or beaten off for anything else. Indeed, a black man could have beaten off to death; Claudette Colvin, even though already was arrested for having challenged the segregation laws, was a teenage girl who was pregnant and not married. She would have been accused of being promiscuous. Hence, Rosa Parks was perfect because she had no criminal records, nothing to blame as she was a married woman who also had a proper job.

Homework: Learn the lesson.