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Who is Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks wwas born on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She is well known for the Montgomery bus incident, which James Blake, a bus driver, asked her to stand up. She refused because standing up looked unfair. She became one of the black social movement leaders and her decision caused to improve the rights of blacks. She died in October 24, 2005, in Detroit, Michigan.

What happened in the Montgomery bus?
Parks, who was an African American seamstress, boarded on the Montgomery's Cleveland Avenue bus on December 1, 1955 to commute from her job. Blake asked her and three more African Americans to vacate their seats. She refused while others agreed to stand up.

When Parks refused, Blake threatened her by calling police officers. Even though two police officers came to the bus to arrest her, tried not to worry about the upcoming events for possible police brutalities. When one of them asked why she denied, she replied back why all whites pushed blacks around. "I don't know, but the law is the law and you're under arrest" was the answer. Even though they arrested her, both officers picked up her belongings such as purse and shopping bag and even gave them back when they returned to a police car.

Even though other passengers witnessed the incident, various myths existed. Some people believed that her tiredness made her to refuse. Another people thought that her passiveness made her to deny. However, she refuted the claims and asserted them as false arguments in her article named "Tired of Giving in."

Parks refused to stand up because she was tired
Even though Parks had conflicts with Blake and other executive officers, several different opinions existed. She did not give in her seat due to her tiredness. Both her physical tiredness and believing herself as old were not the major reason either. Tired of giving in her seat was her major reason why she refused. She said, "I was not tired physically... I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."

Her passiveness toward the incident
People viewed Parks as a passive person based on her reluctance to make her case as an example against segregation. Mr. Nixon asked her whether she was interested in it. However, her first response was "I told him I'd have to talk with my mother and husband." Moreover, her husband was angry to Nixon's suggestion because the incident might be difficult to ask people to support it because the Claudette Colvin's case was already existed.

Even though, she was passive at the beginning, other companions helped her to actively fight against to the segregation. Jo Ann Robinson, both Parks' closest acquaintances and a member of the Women's Political Council, assisted her. Some ministers in the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Robinson and other members in Women's Political Council wrote a leaflet to urge people to participate in their movement. It stated:

"Don't ride the bus to work, to town, to school or any place on Monday, December 5. Another Negro Woman has been arrested and put in jail because she refused to give up her bus seat... If you work, take a cab, or share a ride, or walk. come to a mass meeting Monday at 7:00 P.M, at the Holt Street Baptist Church for further instruction."

During the case and after Judges reached the verdict
Her lawyers, Charles Langford and Fred Gray, did not defend Parks against her charges, even if they suggested a plea of "Not Guilty." Only the U.S. Supreme Court could change the segregation laws. Therefore, convicting guilty and appealing to a higher court were their major interest. However, Judges suspended her sentences and fined ten dollars and additional four dollars as a court fee.

After Judges gave their verdict, Reverend Abernathy and several other ministers formed the Montgomery Improvement Association, also known as MIA, because National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP, was a relatively non-powerful organization in Alabama and even refused to encourage black people in Montgomery to stand up for their basic rights. Moreover, Abernathy requested "Courteous treatment on the buses," "first-come, first-served seating, with whites in front and blacks in back" and "hiring of black drivers for the black bus routes" to both the bus company and the city's white leaders to improve the black rights. Even though whites tried their best to stop their boycott, it lasted more than three weeks.

Conclusion
On November 19, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the favor of Parks by declaring the segregation in the Montgomery bus was unconstitutional. Even though, its decision favored her, the written order should arrive to become the official verdict. Therefore, blacks did not ride the Montgomery buses until it arrived. The written order arrived on December 20 and blacks returned to the buses a day after its arrival.

Even though the segregation became unconstitutional, racial integrating in the Montgomery buses did not work well. Bus schedules ended after 5 P.M. and even snipers threatened blacks who used buses. Some whites even bombed homes and churches. However, their violence could not either scare or stop blacks to ride buses.

Parks' refusal to stand up in the Montgomery bus had several meanings. It not only showed the bravery to fight back against the segregation but also improved their rights. She might stand up and move for her own safety and avoid unnecessary troubles. However, what she did in the Montgomery bus improved the rights of blacks and even caused the segregation law unconstitutional.

Bettye Collier-Thomas and V. P. Franklin, the authors of "Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement," showed the perspectives of U.S. historians on the specific period, from 1954 to 1965. They viewed it as a "Civil Rights Era" based on both the Montgomery bus incident by Rosa Parks and the 'Brown v. Board of Education' in 1954, the case which the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the Plessy v. Ferguson, the case that emphasized the "separation but equal." The two major incidents not only changed the social and political status of African Americans but also emerged the women's liberation and Black Power movements.