How Far Was Rosa Parks Significant to Black Civil Rights?

Rosa Parks was a middle aged woman who, on the 1st December 1955, after a long day at work, refused to give up her bus seat to a White American as she was tired and had had enough of the treatment Black Americans received (which was extremely poor). As a result of her refusal, Parks was arrested (this was not the first time this sort of incident had happened to Parks but had happened to several others) and sent to jail for one night. Parks is referred to as the “Mother of the Modern Day Black Civil Rights Movement” by a number of sources (the first person to refer to Parks as this is unknown), but how far was Rosa Parks actually significant to Black Civil Rights?

After her arrest (and due to large pressure from her family) Parks approached the National Association Advancement of Coloured People (the NAACP), one of the leading members of the association was Martin Luther King Jr. Parks and King new each other through the NAACP because she was the secretary to the association and King was one of the leading members. This made it easier for Park’s to approach the NAACP as she already had a connection to the leader. King had previously tried to run a test case in early 1955 but it had failed. Parks was taken on as a new test case and her story seemed to draw attention to the NAACP. In 1955 King organised a bus boycott on the behalf of Parks to show that Black Americans had had enough and wanted desegregating to happen and soon.

The boycott lasted for 381 days, during which carpooling got banned (as this was how Black Americans were travelling). At the end of the Boycott it was declared that busses were to be desegregated. Kings actions would later inspire the 1961 Freedom Riders who attempted to show (peacefully) that the end results from the Montgomery Bus Boycott were not forgotten and that Black Americans were going to ensure that the desegregation of busses was enforced, even if this entailed being abused both physically and psychologically. The Montgomery...