Who is Rosa Parks...
[Steve Schapiro ,1965]
Born in Tuskegee, Alabama on February 4, 1913
In the early years of Rosa's life, she lived on a farm with her grandparents, mother, and brother. During this time, Rosa witnessed lynchings, night rides from the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and other horrific events. “We didn’t have any civil rights. It was just a matter of survival, of existing from one day to the next. I remember going to sleep as a girl hearing the Klan ride at night and hearing a lynching and being afraid the house would burn down.” Soon after Rosa and her family moved to Montgomery where she went to school. Parks was part of the 7% of black students to make it past the 6th grade, which meant she had to move away and live with her aunt because school wasn’t offered in most of rural Alabama.
Rosa Parks During the 28th Anunal NAACP Image Awards
[Steve Granitz, 1997]
Rosa lived in Montgomery Alabama for most of her life. There she met her husband Raymond Parks, together they joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This organization supported equalizing rights for African American people. Parks was the Secretary for the NAACP and began documenting discrimination cases, though they rarely got justice.
Historic NAACP Convention
"It was more a matter of trying to challenge the powers that be, and to let it be known that we did not wish to continue being treated as second-class citizens." - Rosa Parks
Penelope Torres and Kaylee Bahler ~ Senior Group Website ~ Word Count: 1154 ~ Media Minutes: 3:50 ~ Process Paper: 429 Words