The Mother of the Freedom MovementIn 1955, an African-American seamstress contributed to the civil rights movement in the United States, and her name was Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks was an African-American civil rights activist. Many know her as "the first lady of civil rights" or "the mother of the freedom movement." Rosa Parks once said, “I saw the bus go by every day, but for me it was a way of life; we had no choice but to accept what the custom was. The bus was one of the first ways I realized there was a black world and a white world. (The Story Behind the Bus) After saying this, she knew she had to take a stand against segregation and do everything in her power to change it. Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama to her parents. James McCauley and Leona Edwards. Eventually, in 1915, Rosa's parents divorced and her mother took her and her brother to live in Pine Level. In Pine Level, Rosa lived with her grandparents most of the time. Rosa was homeschooled until the age of eleven, then attended a public school called the Industrial School for Girls. She took professional and academic courses and also started a laboratory school for secondary education, but unfortunately she was never able to complete her studies as she was forced to abandon her studies to take care of her grandmother. sick mother. Growing up, Rosa was influenced by Jim Crow laws, these laws separated whites from blacks in almost everything they did, including public restrooms, water fountains, education, and transportation. Transportation for blacks was very different than for whites, whites were allowed to take the bus to their schools while blacks had to walk to their schools. Public t...... middle of paper ...... none of them would take a stand for what they believed in because they thought no one would agree or try to help them change these laws. The Montgomery Bus Boycott took place from December 5, 1955 to December 20, 1956. This boycott occurred when African Americans refused to ride buses in the city of Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregation of seats . Just two days after Parks' arrest, 40,000 people had already organized for the boycott. Many whites attempted to stop the boycott by trying to separate the black community, and they also attempted to break up the private taxi system that allowed blacks to have transportation. More than 66 percent of the people who rode these buses were black, causing economic hardship for tons of buses. The Montgomery Boycott changed a lot, but its greatest effect was ending segregation against blacks..