Rosa Parks is one of the most important black Americans in the history of the United States. When she refused to give up her seat to a white man nearly 45 years ago, she didn't have any idea of the impact that it would have on the future of the black race. Mrs. Parks altered the course of history. If she hadn't had the courage to stand up for what she believed in, it may have been years before blacks began getting equal rights. All it took was one woman and her strength to end the racial segregation.
             On February 4, 1913 Rosa Louise McCauley was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. Rosa's parents, James and Leona, were a carpenter and teacher. When she was two, Rosa, her mother and her younger brother Sylvester, moved in with Rosa's grandparents in Pine Level, Alabama. She enrolled in the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls at the age of eleven. When she graduated high school, Rosa attended Alabama State Teachers College. She soon married Raymond Parks, and the young couple made their home in Montgomery, Alabama. They joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and worked on improving the segregation of African-Americans in the south ("Rosa Parks Biography" 1).
             Rosa Parks became a part of American history on December 1, 1955. After a long and tiring day at work, Mrs. Parks got on the bus to go home. A white man entered the bus shortly after. Since there were no empty seats left, Rosa was required to get up. Under any other circumstance Rosa would have willingly gave up her set to a child or elder of any color, but she was tired of all the racism and segregation she and the millions of other African-Americas received each and every day. This time she just sat there and refused to give up her seat. Rosa was arrested, thus beginning a 381 day Montgomery bus boycott. Finally in November of 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that it was against the law to segregate on transportation ( Albin 1).
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