In 1955, in the city of Montgomery, Alabama, a woman named Rosa Parks did something very brave. At that time, Black people in the United States did not have the same rights as white people. They had to use separate schools, bathrooms, restaurants, and buses. On the bus, Black people had to sit in the back. If a white person needed a seat, a Black person had to give it up.
Rosa Parks was a quiet woman who worked as a seamstress, someone who sews clothes. On December 1, 1955, she was riding the bus home from work and sat in the section for Black passengers. But when more white people got on the bus, the driver told her to move so a white man could sit down.
Rosa Parks said, “No.”
She was arrested and taken to jail. This was not the first time someone had refused to give up a bus seat, but her arrest started something big. People in the Black community were tired of unfair treatment. A young pastor named Martin Luther King Jr. helped organize a bus boycott, which is when people refuse to use a service to protest something wrong.
For over a year, Black people in Montgomery stopped riding the buses. They walked to work and school, created carpool systems, and stayed strong even when it was hard. Finally, the U.S. Supreme Court said bus segregation was illegal. Rosa Parks’s small action helped change history.
Rosa Parks is now remembered as a symbol of courage and fairness. Because she said “no” to injustice, the civil rights movement grew stronger. Today, schools, parks, and streets are named after her. She showed that one person can make a difference.