Jim Whiting - Rosa Parks

Copyright 2008 by Mitchell Lane Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. Printed and bound in the United States of America.

Printing 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

A Robbie Reader/Whats So Great About... ?

Amelia Earhart

Christopher Columbus

Elizabeth Blackwell

Galileo

Helen Keller

Johnny Appleseed

Rosa Parks

Anne Frank

Daniel Boone

Ferdinand Magellan

George Washington Carver

Henry Hudson

Paul Bunyan

Sam Houston

Annie Oakley

Davy Crockett

Francis Scott Key

Harriet Tubman

Jacques Cartier

Robert Fulton

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Whiting, Jim.

Rosa Parks / by Jim Whiting.

p. cm. (A Robbie reader, whats so great about... ?)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-58415-573-7 (library bound)

eISBN 978-1-54575-040-7

1. Parks, Rosa, 19132005Juvenile literature. 2. African American womenAlabama MontgomeryBiography Juvenile literature. 3. African Americans Alabama MontgomeryBiography Juvenile literature. 4. African Americans Civil rights Alabama Montgomery History 20th centuryJuvenile literature. 5. Segregation in transportationAlabama Montgomery History 20th century Juvenile literature. 6. Montgomery (Ala.) Race relations Juvenile literature. 7. Montgomery (Ala.) Biography Juvenile literature. I. Title.

F334.M753P3887 2008

323.092dc22

[B]

2007000785

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jim Whiting has been a remarkably versatile and accomplished journalist, writer, editor, and photographer for more than 30 years. He has written and edited more than 250 nonfiction childrens books. His subjects range from authors to zoologists and include contemporary pop icons and classical musicians, saints and scientists, emperors and explorers. Representative titles include The Life and Times of Franz Liszt, The Life and Times of Julius Caesar, Charles Schulz, Charles Darwin and the Origin of the Species, Juan Ponce de Leon, Robert Fulton, Anne Frank, and The Scopes Monkey Trial. He lives in Washington State with his wife and two teenage sons.

PHOTO CREDITS: Cover, p. 18 National Archives and Records Administration; pp. 1, 3, 22 Associated Press/Library of Congress; p. 4 AP Photo/Montgomery County Sheriffs Office; p. 6 Henry Ford Museum; pp. 7, 21 Library of Congress; pp. 8, 9 Records of the District Court of the United States National Archives and Records Administration; pp. 10, 20 Don Cravens/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images; p. 14 AP Photo/Gene Herrick; p. 17Grey Villet/Time Life Pictures/ Getty Images; p. 25 Richard Ellis/AFP/Getty Images; p. 26 Paul Sancya/AFP/Getty Images; p. 27Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images.

PUBLISHERS NOTE: The following story has been thoroughly researched and to the best of our knowledge represents a true story. While every possible effort has been made to ensure accuracy, the publisher will not assume liability for damages caused by inaccuracies in the data, and makes no warranty on the accuracy of the information contained herein.

PPC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter One
A Famous Bus Ride

Chapter Two
Learning to Respect Herself

Chapter Three
A New Leader Emerges

Chapter Four
Rosa Wins Her Battle

Chapter Five
Rosas Later Life

Words in bold type can be found in the glossary.

The police report on Rosa Parks. It says, We received a call upon arrival the bus operator said he had a colored female sitting in the white section of the bus, and would not move back. December 1, 1955, was not the first time Rosa had refused to give up her seat to a white person. The bus driver, J. F. Blake, had thrown her off the bus in 1943 for breaking the same law.

CHAPTER ONE

A Famous Bus Ride

On the afternoon of December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was riding the bus home from work. She was a seamstress for a department store in Montgomery, Alabama.

Rosa was African American. At that time, African Americans in the South were usually separated from white people. This practice was called segregation (seh-gruh-GAY-shun). They were also treated differently.

Buses were one of the public places where segregation was practiced. African Americans had to sit at the back of the bus. If all the seats were filled and a white person boarded the bus, one of the African Americans would have to stand so that the white person could sit down. That was the law.

On this day, Rosas bus was full. A white man boarded the bus. The bus driver ordered Rosa to give up her seat. She refused.

The driver stopped the bus and walked back to Rosa. He was angry with her. She wasnt obeying the law.

Are you going to stand up? the bus driver asked.

No, Rosa answered.

The bus that Rosa Parks rode in 1955 was later purchased by the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, Michigan. It is the center of an exhibition called With Liberty and Justice for All. Museum visitors can sit in the bus and listen to a recording of Rosa Parks explaining why she refused to give up her seat.

Well, by God, Im going to have you arrested, the driver shouted.

You may do that, Rosa said.

Policemen came to the bus. They took Rosa to the police station. She was locked in a jail cell for a few hours.

Thousands of people supported Rosas decision. Just over a year later, the bus laws in Montgomery were changed. African Americans would no longer have to give up their seats to whites.

Montgomerys bus system was just the start. African Americans wanted to change other unfair laws. They wanted the country to be integrated (IN-tuh-gray-ted). That means everyone would receive the same treatment, no matter what their skin color.

Rosa Parks had worked as a seamstress for much of her life before her arrest in 1955. She was fired almost immediately afterward.

CHAPTER TWO

Learning to Respect Herself

Rosa McCauley was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her father, James McCauley, was a carpenter. Her mother, Leona McCauley, had been a schoolteacher. By the time Rosa was born, Leona had stopped teaching to raise a family. Rosa would have one brother, Sylvester, who was born in 1914.