The Most Important Bus Ride Ever
(Rosa Parks)
Sharon Smith
(grades 3-6)
It was just another routine bus ride for me that day, or so I thought. It was December 1,1955 and I was eight years old. I was anxious to get home to work on the present I was making for my father for Christmas. My mother was sitting close beside me busily working on her knitting and I was looking out the window when all of the sudden I began hearing angry voices.
"Lady, I thought I told you to move to the back of the bus!" I heard other voices being raised and voicing the same orders.
I strained to see around those in front of me until I found the "lady" to whom all the yells were being directed. I was surprised at who I saw. It was my friend Annie’s grandmother, Rosa Parks (I always called her Mrs. Rosa)! I looked up at my mother to find out why all these people were angry with Mrs. Rosa, but she told me to be quiet and went back to her knitting as if she was trying to pretend nothing was happening.
The men were getting angrier with every second that passed. I heard someone behind us say that they were upset because Mrs. Rosa would not give up her seat on the bus for some white men who had just come aboard. You see, back when I was a little girl, black people were supposed to ride only in the back of the bus and allow the white people to ride in the front or even to take our seats if there were not enough places. The term people used for it (even though I didn’t understand it back then), was segregation. This meant that black people and white people were supposed to be segregated, or separated from one another.
Mrs. Rosa sat as straight as a board in her seat and didn’t look anywhere but straight ahead. The bus driver stood up and towered over the little woman as he shook his finger in her face and yelled at her so loud it hurt my ears. The tension on the bus was getting stronger as all the white people began getting angry at Mrs. Rosa and the black people sitting in the back with my mother and I began getting nervous about what was going to happen. This was certainly going to be exciting!
No matter what those men did, Mrs. Rosa just would not give up her seat. Eventually, the bus driver called the police and Mrs. Rosa was arrested! I could not believe what was happening! I had never seen anything like this before.
I am a grown woman now as I remember that story. However, no matter how many years go by there will never be a time when I cannot remember every detail of what happened on the bus that day. I was too young to understand it all, but Mrs. Rosa’s refusal to give her seat to that man began a huge adventure called the "Montgomery Bus Boycott." For a long time, black men, women, boys and girls and even many white people refused to ride the buses because of the way black people were treated. I will never, ever forget all the times my mother and I walked several miles to work and school. It seemed like it lasted forever, but eventually, a law was passed saying that black people had just as much right as anyone else to sit anywhere they wanted on a bus.
I will never forget the first time I rode on a bus after the boycott was over. It was the greatest experience of my life! After almost a year, my mother and I stepped onto the bus in November of 1956. I sat up straight and tall and was so proud as my mother and I took our seats not in the back, but in the very front of the bus.
Looking back, I am so thankful that Mrs. Rosa was such a brave woman. Even when all those people were angry, she refused to give in. Because of her and so many others, my children today can enjoy every right and freedom that anyone else in this great country enjoys.
This story is based upon the true story of the day when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery. It is historical fiction since I imagined what it would have been like for a little girl on the bus that day even though there is no proof that a young Afrian American girl was present that day.
Worksheet:
- What year was it on the day the little girl, her mother, and Rosa Parks were on the bus?
- What was the little girl’s mother doing as she sat on the bus?
- What were the men saying to Mrs. Rosa and why were they angry with her?
- What happtned to Mrs. Rosa because she refused to give up her seat?
- How long did the Montgomery Bus Boycott last?
- How would you have felt if you were on the bus watching that day? Would you have given up your seat if you had been told to?
- What does segregation mean and what do you think about it?
"The Most Important Bus Ride Ever" (Rosa Parks)
Outline:
- Normal Bus Ride Home
- 1955, Christmastime
- little girl’s mother was knitting
- anxious to get home to work on father’s present
- Angry Voices
- Strained to see who it was – Mrs. Rosa!
- Mother pretended nothing was happening
- Men getting angrier and bus driver yelling
- Mrs. Rosa refused to move and was arrested
- Many years, but woman can recall story perfectly even today
- Mrs. Rosa’s courage helped begin the Montgomery Bus Boycott
- Boycott lasted until Nov. 1956
- We all walked until a law was passed that said segregation on buses was unconstitutional
- Rode in bus with her mother after the boycott and proudly sat up front
- Thankful today for Mrs. Rosa’s courage
- It’s been many years but will never forget that day
- Today grandchildren can enjoy every freedom and privilege others enjoy
Answers to Worksheet:
- 1955
- Knitting
- The men were telling Mrs. Rosa to get up from her seat on the bus and were angry because she refused to obey them.
- Mrs. Rosa was arrested because she refused to give up her seat.
- The boycott lasted almost a year until November, 1956.
- Answers will vary.
- Segregation means separated. Answers will vary for part b.
Props:
Have a guest speaker (preferably an older African American woman) come tell the story
Picture of Rosa Parks
Use a southern accent to tell story since it took place in Montgomery, AL.
Rocking chair to sit in as story is told
Extension Activities:
- Have students pretend they were reporters in 1955 and write an article for the Montgomery newspaper giving an account of Mrs. Rosa’s brave act that day on the bus.
- Make a bulletin board entitled "The Civil Rights Movement" and allow students to collect facts to be posted on the board.
Sources:
http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/USA/MontBus.html
My own knowledge of the incident