Essay/Term paper: Women who changed the world: rosa parks

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Society Term Papers

Women Who Changed the World: Rosa Parks


There were many women who have changed the world in the fields of math,
science, sports, music, writing and leadership. Rosa Parks was a leader to help
the blacks become equal to whites. Eleanor Roosevelt was also a leader because
she helped the poor. Harriet Tubman was also a leader which helped free black
slaves.
I am going to tell what Rosa Parks did to help the world be a better
place. Parks, Rosa Louise (1913- ), civil rights leader, born in Tuskegee,
Alabama. She attended Alabama State College, worked as a seamstress and
housekeeper, and was active in the Montgomery Voters League and the NAACP
(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Youth Council. In
1943 she was elected secretary of the Montgomery branch of the NAACP. In a
celebrated incident in 1955 she was arrested for violating segregation laws when
she refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. This resulted in a
boycott of the bus system by blacks, with Martin Luther King, Jr. leading the
movement. In spite of harassment the boycott continued, and in 1956 segregated
seating was challenged in a federal lawsuit. Within a few months bus segregation
was ruled unconstitutional, and the buses were officially desegregated in
December 1956. Parks, who had lost her job because of the boycott, moved to
Detroit, Michigan, the following year, and again took in sewing. She also worked
as a fundraiser for the NAACP. In 1965 she was hired by Congressman John Conyers,
Jr., also a civil rights leader, to manage his Detroit office. She remained
active in the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In
1987 she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development,
offering guidance to young blacks. She won the NAACP's Spingarn Medal (1970) and
the Martin Luther King Jr. Award (1980), as well as an honorary degree from Shaw
College.
I think that without Rosa Parks or any other men or women who tried to
stop the racism against blacks has helped our nation in a big way. Without
these people our world would be prejudice and racist.