"No" - Rosa Parks
"The only tired 1 was, was tired of giving in".
Those are the words of Rosa Parks who on December 1, 1955, refused to give up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus, sparking the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. A year later, when the boycott was over, there was a federal injunction on segregation on buses, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a national figure, the civil rights movement was a national cause, and Rosa Parks was out of a job.
The following was taken from Rosa Parks' book, "My Story".
"When I got off work the evening of December 1,1 went to Court Square as usual to catch the Cleveland Avenue bus home. 1 saw a vacant seat in the middle section of the bus and took it. There was a man sitting next to the window and two women sitting across the aisle."
"The next stop was the Empire Theater, and some whites got on. They filled up the white seats and one man was left standing. The driver looked back and noticed the man standing. Then he looked back at us and said, "Let me have those front seats', because they were the front seats of the black section. Didn't anybody move. We just sat where we were, the four of us. Then he spoke a second time. 'Y'all make it light on yourselves, and let me have those seats'.
The man in the window seat next to me got up, and I moved to let him pass by me, then I looked across the aisle and noticed that the two women were also standing. I moved over to the window seat. I could not see how standing up was going to 'make it light on me'. The more we gave in and complied, the worse they treated us."
"The driver of the bus saw me still sitting there, and he asked was I going to stand up. I said, "No". He said, "Well, I'm going to have you arrested.' Then I said, "You may do that." Rose Parks was arrested and taken to the police station.
Rosa Parks did not see herself as being courageous nor did she perform a deliberate act of protest. She simply was fed up with the indignity and unjust treatment of blacks by the white people. Even so, her action required great courage, and the message it conveyed was heard loud and clear by the conscience of a nation and the Supreme Court. As a direct result of Rosa Parks' brave action, new laws enacted by Congress moved our nation a step upward on the scale of equal justice for all and for the betterment of humanity.