Riding with Rosa Parks

A 42-year-old woman who was from Alabama, USA got on a bus to travel home from work. It was the end of 1955. That woman was Rosa Parks. On that bus and on that day, Rosa Parks did something that changed history.

She travelled to work and back by bus every day. Those times were a bit different from today’s America. Black and white people in the south of the USA were not equal. Black people often were not allowed in the same public places as white people. The restaurants, hospitals, schools and even the public toilets were segregated; black people were not allowed to use these places. On buses, black people had to get on and off through a different door. They were not allowed to sit on the front seats and they had to stand up if a white person wanted to sit down. If the bus was full, they sometimes had to get off the bus.

On the day of 1 December 1955, Rosa Parks was on the bus on her way home. She was in the black section. A white man got on the bus and the driver told Rosa Parks to give her seat to him. She politely said no. The driver called the police and they arrested her. The black community took action after Rosa Parks was arrested. They all stopped travelling by bus. This was called the "Montgomery Bus Boycott".

The bus companies were not happy with black people’s boycott because they were losing money.

Rosa Parks opened an important chapter for black history in the USA. A year later, the state of Alabama changed the law about black and white people on the buses. Her courage inspired so many people. In 2010, Barack Obama became the USA’s first black president. It showed how much changed in 60 years.