Rosa Parks has been known for decades as the African-American woman who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama. This bold move triggered a citywide bus boycott. She is now known as a civil rights activist who was a significant driving factor behind the desegregation of public facilities in the South. Parks was not the first black woman to refuse her seat to a white man, but she was still seen as an inspiration (Klein 2013). There was something about her overwhelming courage, dedication and pride that made her a leader across the country in a matter of hours. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Rosa Parks was an African American woman born in Tuskegee, Alabama on February 4, 1923. Her desire to promote civil rights came from her grandparents, with whom she lived as a child. They were former slaves who constantly preached to Parks the importance of equality. He attended a segregated school, but received a fairly good education. When she became an adult, she found herself in Montgomery, Alabama, working as a factory worker in a textile factory. He began his life as a civil rights activist in 1943 by joining the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, also known as the NAACP. She was actively involved in the organization; she was a secretary to the president and was a youth leader throughout the organization. As far as Parks was concerned, if there was a will, then there was a way and she would change the world by standing up for civil rights. Parks was a determined, eloquent, and courageous young woman, willing to do whatever it took to be equal. On December 1, 1955, Parks boarded a segregated bus after a long day of hard work. At the time, the social norm was for whites to sit in the front of the bus while blacks sat in the back. Parks boarded the bus and sat in one of the seats closest to the front that was still reserved for blacks. Once the bus began to fill, the driver realized that several whites were standing, waiting to be seated, while many blacks were comfortably seated. At that point the bus driver asked Rosa to give up her seat to the white citizens who were standing; Rosa refused. He felt he shouldn't give up his seat. First of all, it was wrong to consider each race inferior to the other. But secondly, Rosa was sitting in an “African American section.” She was sitting where she was told to sit, so why would she get up? The bus driver called local Parks police and was arrested shortly after the crash, but was released on bail that same night. Parks has since been treated like a hero, but much of the information provided about Parks is incorrect or only tells the half-truth. The first truth to say is that Parks was not the first African-American woman who did not want to give up her seat. There were three other women before her: Aurelia Browder, Mary Louise Smith and Susie McDonald. The second truth is that this act of civil disobedience was in no way premeditated. Little did Parks know that that day he would be defending a cause he believed in. She simply got on the bus and wasn't willing to be disrespected once again. The third truth, and perhaps the greatest in my opinion, is that Parks did not refuse to give up her seat because she was tired. She also wrote in her autobiography: "No, the only tired one I was, was tired of giving up." I feel that Parks was not taught in her correct historical context because she was supposed to be one of a kind, a true leader. People needed the parks to be therespark of a revolution. If people were told that others had done the same as her before and she had been planning it for months, it wouldn't seem so heroic. I believe that over time the myths continued and began to spiral out of control. Parks was an incredible woman and I am very happy that she was able to start a civil rights revolution, but I also believe that her acts were greatly exaggerated . People wanted someone who would resist abuse, someone who feared nothing but fear itself, and someone who would do what they always couldn't; they made Parks this woman. After Parks' meeting on the Montgomery bus, NAACP president E. D. Nixon began organizing a city bus boycott throughout Montgomery with Martin Luther King Jr. as the leader. On December 5, 1955, he began running local advertisements urging other African Americans to stay away from all city buses; on the day of Parks' trial. There was great success with over 40,000 African American commuters supporting Parks and his actions. Because the initial boycott was so successful, the boycott continued very successfully for many months. The buses remained empty and the city began wasting taxpayers' money for nothing. There were riots across the city to protest the boycott, but African Americans continued. In June 1956, racial segregation was declared unconstitutional by the Montgomery District Court. Eventually, after the legislation passed, segregation on buses was ended citywide, so the boycott continued until December 20, 1956; lasted a total of 381 days of protest thanks to Parks and his incredible courage. In subsequent years other campaigns, such as the "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" campaign, used the Montgomery bus boycott as leverage. In the late 1920s and early 1930s this campaign was launched to urge blacks not to shop at white stores in their neighborhoods where they were unable to work. As far as these citizens were concerned, why bother giving a business to a store when they are ignorant and refuse to let the community work inside the business? The NAACP was also behind this campaign; urging citizens to engage in a mass civil rights protest that could change the country, much like the Montgomery bus boycott. Luckily for them, it changed people's opinions just like the previous campaign. Whites had no choice but to hire blacks for skilled, white-collar positions if they wanted to stay in business. The campaign was a resounding success that once again demonstrated the importance of peaceful protest and black activism. Although there are dozens of people involved in the fight against bus segregation in cities across America, the majority seems to focus on Rosa Parks. I think this is because Rosa Parks was in the right place at the right time. Parks did it right in the most oppressed period for African Americans in the South. While slavery was undoubtedly an absolute tragedy, there is nothing more frustrating than being told you are free and yet being treated like an inferior being. Parks was fed up with it and so was everyone else; the only difference was that she decided to take a stand (or rather sit down). As I had previously mentioned, ED Nixon and the NAACP were leaders in the fight against segregation, yet they are rarely mentioned by scholars today. Nixon was the president of the NAACP and organized countless boycotts, demonstrations, civil disobedience movements and personally dedicated his.