Rosa Parks Day

Rosa Parks Day celebrates African-American civil rights activist, Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks was famously arrested for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. This act was illegal due to the Jim Crow laws of segregation. Parks appealed her conviction with the help of the NAACP. At the same time, many people including Martin Luther King, Jr. boycotted the Montgomery bus system until the U.S. Supreme court ruled the segregation laws unconstitutional and the busses were integrated. This led to many other similar protests and the eventual end of segregation across America.

Rosa Parks day is celebrated:

• February 4th in California, New York and Missouri (Rosa Parks’ birthday)

• December 1st in Alabama, Ohio and Oregon (the day she was arrested)