Bold W
LAUREN
It has been made clear throughout history that women have the ability to make a difference and to make the world a better place. The bold decisions we make install the powerful messa ge th at we, as women, want to make a positive change.
Rosa Parks It had started as an ordinary Thursday evening when Rosa Parks boarded the bus in Montgomery, Alabama on the 1st of December, 1955. She had finished her work shift at the retail store, and her feet were tired, but no more tired than any other day. Miss Parks sat down in the first row of the ‘black section’ where s h e m e t wi th th e oth er A f r i c an Americans that had finished their long day of work. The bus drove to another bus stop where many white people filled the ‘white section’ so that there were no seats left in the front. A white person ordered Miss Parks to leave her seat so that she could sit down. Miss Parks did not budge. At that moment, she had made up her mind that she was going to stay there. When the bus driver came, and even the police, Rosa Parks stayed in her seat and did not move. She knew that she had the right to sit there, and her skin colour was not going to change that. Even though she was briefly put in jail, she had started the first signs of the ci vil rights movem ent as African Americans and their supporters started protesting b y b eginning the “Bus Boycott.” Rosa Parks truly showed us to never give up for what you believe in. The event that unravelled on the bus that night demons trated her wanting 016
justice. Miss Parks said she was “tired of being treated differently, like a secondclass citizen on account of the colour of my skin,” and demanded a change. She was clearly aware of the consequences, but yet prevailed with her actions, making many proud of what she had achieved by standing her ground. Her littl e but very significant protest sparked a new beginning for African Americans as they found a new inner strength and courage to fight for justice and desegregation. The bold choice made by Miss Parks brought 40,000 African Americans together to start the Bus Boycott. For 381 days, they would not ride on buses in Montgomery, to show how much the bus companies depended on the African Americans’ money, and how without them, they would go out of business. The decision Miss Parks’ made has had ma jor impacts on American society and the world. African Americans are no longer legally segregated or have to give up their seats on buses to white people and it h as opened up other opportunities for African Americans to fight for rights and freedoms that they once did not have.
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