Do you take a bus to school? Do you sit wherever there’s an open seat? Well, it wasn’t always like that. There was once a time in this country when not all people were allowed to sit anywhere they wanted on the bus like we can now. This segregation was because of their race, because of skin color.  It didn’t matter that we are all the same on the inside. This time is called the Segregation Period. This is when people were separated by color. On buses, the blacks had to sit in the back and whites sat in the front. The separation was not just on buses. There were separate  schools,  bathrooms, movie theaters, stores, just about everything.

On December 1, 1955, a woman named Rosa Parks refused to take anymore of the ignorance of the law. She refused to sit where colored people were supposed to sit. When a white person bullied her to try to get her up, she did not surrender. This event started a boycott, and this boycott was  the beginning of the end of segregation. This event is called the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This boycott sent the United States into a frenzy, changing the minds of people all over the country to end segregation of public facilities.

Rosa Parks was always a determined woman. She was born on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She went to two schools in her lifetime. One was Highlander Folk School  and the other was Teachers College for Negroes. She got married in 1932 to Raymond Parks. Later Rosa received many awards for her courage. In 1979, she received the Spingarn Medal, in 1995 she received the Golden Plate Award, in 1996 she received a Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1999 she received the Congressional Gold Medal, and in 2000 she received  the NAACP Image Award for outstanding support.

So next time you think about caving in or giving up, or even just the next time  you're on the bus, always remember one of Rosa Park’s famous quotes, “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear, knowing what must be done does away with fear.”