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Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks was an American activist in the civil rights movement in the 1950s. She is very well-known for her role in the Montgomery bus boycott, which led to her being called “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement” by the United States Congress.

Parks broke the rules in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, when the bus driver ordered her to get off her seat because a white man, James F. Blake, wanted to sit there and the ‘white’ section of the bus was full. The man requested Parks to move to the ‘color’ section of the bus, and sit near other black individuals.

Needless to say, she refused to move and was arrested for civil disobedience. However, she was not the only person of color that had to deal with racism on a daily basis, including while riding the bus and she wasn’t the first to resist bus segregation either.

The fact the Parks got arrested encouraged the black community to boycott the Montgomery buses for over a year, leading to the Supreme Court of the United States put an end to legal segregation on Alabama’s public transportation system once and for all.

But even though her ‘rebellious’ act made our world better, he definitely had to suffer a lot for it, as she was fired from her job, and received death threats for many, many years after the incident.

Make sure to also check: 14 Puzzling Mysteries About the Universe.