Rosa Parks

Rosa Louise Parks (born February 4, 1913 as Rosa Louise McCauley) is a retired African-American seamstress and figure in the American Civil Rights Movement, most famous for her refusal in 1955 to give up a bus seat to a white man who was getting on the bus.

Debated aspects of Parks' story and its place in the civil rights movement

While few historians doubt Parks' contribution to the civil rights movement or the bravery of her refusal, some have questioned some of the more mythic elements of her story.

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Standard accounts of Parks' act of civil disobedience in 1955 refer to her simply as a "tired seamstress." Parks stated in her autobiography, My Story, that it was not true that she was physically tired but was "tired of giving in."

Related Topics:
Civil disobedience - 1955

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Also, some accounts downplay her prior involvement with the NAACP and the Highlander Folk School, portraying her as an individual with no particular political background or training.

Related Topics:
NAACP - Highlander Folk School

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Many accounts fail to clarify: she was sitting in the "colored" section of the bus. With the "white" section full, a white man wanted her to give up her seat. That is, it was not a matter of protest on any level when she sat down; the protest was in her refusal to give up a seat in the "colored" section.

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Parks was not the first African American to refuse to give up her seat to a white person. The NAACP accepted and litigated other cases before, such as that of Irene Morgan, ten years earlier, which resulted in a victory in the Supreme Court on Commerce Clause grounds. That victory only overturned state segregation laws as applied to actual travel in interstate commerce, such as interstate bus travel. The Rosa Parks case is considered the landmark because it applied to all segregationist laws, not just those affecting interstate commerce.

Related Topics:
NAACP - Irene Morgan - Commerce Clause - Interstate commerce

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Jackie Robinson took a similar, but less-well-known, stand while an Army officer in 1944 in Fort Hood, Texas, refusing to move to the back of a bus. He was brought before a court martial, which acquitted him.http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/blbio_jackierobinson.htm

Related Topics:
Jackie Robinson - 1944 - Fort Hood, Texas - Court martial

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The NAACP had additionally considered but rejected some earlier protesters deemed unable or unsuitable to withstand the pressure of a legal challenge to segregation laws (see Claudette Colvin and Mary Louise Smith). The selection of Parks for a test case supported by the NAACP has been speculated to be in part because she was employed by the NAACP.

Related Topics:
NAACP - Claudette Colvin - Mary Louise Smith

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A scene in the 2002 film Barbershop, where characters discuss earlier instances of African-Americans refusing to give up their bus seats, caused activists Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to launch a boycott against the film.

Related Topics:
2002 - Barbershop - Jesse Jackson - Al Sharpton - Boycott

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