Rosa Parks: Civil Rights Leader
Every month is Black History Month
•
5m 24s
On December 1, 1955, a soft-spoken African-American seamstress named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man, as dictated by existing segregation laws. She was neither the first African American, nor the first woman to challenge the segregation laws within a public transportation system. But her flawless character, her quiet strength, and her moral fortitude caused her act to successfully ignite action in others.
This simple, courageous act of protest by Rosa Parks started a fire in the hearts of African Americans everywhere. It led to an immediate city-wide bus boycott and, for this reason, the act by Rosa Parks is considered by many to be the event that sparked the Civil Rights movement. The arrest of Rosa Parks and the resulting bus boycott also led to the meteoric rise of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., as the widely recognized leader of this movement. Over time, Rosa Parks came to be known internationally as a symbol for human rights.
Up Next in Every month is Black History Month
-
The Biddy Mason Story
Bridget Biddy Mason is an American Hero. Born enslaved, Mason became one of the first prominent citizens and landowners in Los Angeles through the second half of the 19th Century. She also founded the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles in 1872. But in 1848, she walked 1,700 m...
-
Little Rock Nine
Legacy of the Little Rock Nine: Featuring Ernest Green and Melba Pattillo Beals, PhD chronicles the story of the first 9 African American students to attend the all white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Learn how powers of local & national government battled integration 3 years afte...
-
To Establish the Rule of Justice The ...
The 1964 Civil Rights Act made it illegal to discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. In this video, curators Amber N. Mitchell and Heather Bruegl (Oneida/Stockbridge-Munsee) discuss the origins of this landmark piece of legislation, the changes it prompted, and the le...
