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Study Guide The Story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott Revisited

MYTH TRUTH Rosa Parks was a seamstress who was poor. She  She was a community leader and was lived in Montgomery, Alabama, during the 1950s. well-respected and admired

In those days there was still segregation in parts of  There is still segregation today – some the United States. That meant that African country clubs will not let African Americans and European Americans were not Americans join allowed to use the same public facilities. . .  Facilities for African Americans were inferior (low quality) . . .whenever it was crowded on the city buses  African Americans were never allowed African Americans had to give up seats in front to to sit in front European Americans and move to the back of the  If the white section was full, blacks had bus. to move further back One day on her way home from work, Rosa was  You need to call her Rosa Parks, not tired and sat down in the front of the bus. just “Rosa”  She was not any more tired than on any other day  She refused to get up because she was tired of segregation, not because she was sleepy  She sat in the front row of the “colored section” in the middle of the bus  She sat where she was supposed to sit – she didn’t intend to break the law that day – she did not break the law by sitting in front  The white section needed to expand, and she refused to move when she was asked to move out of the section she was allowed be in. As the bus got crowded she was asked to give up  The bus driver was tired and angry her seat to a European American man, and she  Rosa Parks remained respectful and refused. The bus driver told her she had to go to calm the back of the bus, and she still refused to move. It was a hot day, and she was tired and angry, and became very stubborn. When other African Americans in Montgomery  African Americans were already angry heard this they became angry too, so they decided  They were always allowed to ride to refuse to ride the buses until everyone was together, they just couldn’t sit together allowed to ride together. They boycotted the buses.  The boycott was planned 5 years in advance  They decided to start the boycott after Rosa Parks was arrested because she was a community leader and well- respected – people would rally behind her  There were other people who had refused to move, and the boycott did not start after they were arrested The boycott, which was led by Martin Luther King,  The boycott lasted over a year – 381 Jr. succeeded. Now African Americans and days European Americans can ride the buses together in  Blacks could not get to the doctor, the Montgomery. Rosa Parks was a very brave person. grocery, or to work  Everyone sacrificed a lot  After the boycott succeeded, everyone could sit anywhere on the bus  Rosa Parks was not the only one who was brave – everyone was brave  Whites boycotted the busses too