Tomorrow Project Challenges
Rosa Parks
"As far as I can remember, during my lifetime, I resisted the idea of being mistreated and pushed around because of my race, and I felt that all people should be free, regardless of their color."
— Rosa Parks in the documentary, “A Time for Freedom,” directed by Carl Lerner, 1957
Consider the gains made in civil rights by heroes such as Rosa Parks who refused to accept Jim Crow segregation and bravely pushed forward in her belief that "all people should be free, regardless of their color." Share your thoughts about civil rights today.
Rosa Parks (1913–2005) became an icon of the civil rights movement, best known for her courageous act of refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus in 1955. Her arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a pivotal event that led to the dismantling of Jim Crow segregation laws. These state and local laws enforced racial segregation in almost all aspects of life and disenfranchised Black voters in the southern United States.
Find out more about Rosa Parks
[Photo of Rosa Parks, c. 1950, Library of Congress]