Rosa Parks for Kids

today we are going to learn about rosa parks another incredible american hero rosa parks was a civil rights activist fighting for the equal and fair treatment of african americans she had such a huge impact she was later called the first lady of civil rights by the united states congress and she's also called the mother of the freedom movement now that's right the mother of the freedom movement you can see right next to her here in this picture is dr king himself she was the mother of the freedom movement the first lady of civil rights a

civil rights activist that was bold and was brave and it's going to be awesome to look at her life [Music] let's start at the beginning rosa parks was born in 1913 in the state of alabama [Music] here is the united states of america which state is alabama do you know where alabama is huh where is the state of alabama the state of alabama is right here isn't that interesting right there have you ever been to alabama cool alabama is in part of the united states called the south because it's the southern part of the united

states growing up rosa parks lived on a farm in a little town her family worked as sharecroppers meaning they didn't own the land but they worked the land in the hopes of earning some money the farm grew cotton now life was very hard on the farm as it was on lots of farms but growing cotton was very difficult and she would have to pick the cotton oftentimes without the right kind of shoes or with no shoes at all the sun was very hot it would hurt your back oh my goodness life was incredibly difficult here

is the state of alabama again when she turned 11 rosa parks moved to the community of pine level now pine level is just outside of montgomery the capital of alabama and you can see the map right there of alabama montgomery is the capital of alabama she went from being in a rural environment being on that farm in that small little town to an urban environment being just outside of the capital back then there were bad laws that kept things segregated segregated means separated by race this was not fair and it was so horrible to treat

people differently because of the color of their skin and this was true not only the little town that she grew up in when she was really young but also just outside of montgomery and in montgomery this was true in rural life suburban life and urban life african americans were mistreated just because of the color of their skin it was awful they had to use different schools restaurants sometimes theaters even hospitals restrooms lunch counters libraries and as you can see in this picture drinking fountains [Music] there was even segregation in the buses african americans were forced

to sit in the back of the bus sometimes they were even forced to stand up during the ride this was horrible it was not fair they were being mistreated and rosa herself was mistreated because she was african american she was treated differently she was bullied she wasn't treated with the respect that she deserved she was mistreated too so in 1943 rosa parks joined the naacp the naacp is an organization that fights for the rights of african americans and it is still around today rosa parks was ready to join the civil rights movement and was ready

to make a big impact to make things more fair rosa parks worked hard for 12 years but did not become famous in the civil rights movement until december 1st 1955. that was a day that would change not only her life but the entire civil rights movement on that day they tried to force her to stand up during a bus ride to give up her seat stand up and give it to someone else but she knew that wasn't fair and she was not gonna back down she was not going to let them bully her and force

her to do something that was not right she was there first and she deserved to stay right where she was they threatened her and were mean and said we're gonna call the police and guess what [Music] she refused she said no way this is not fair this is not right she made her stand and think of how much courage that took think of how brave she was in that moment with everyone criticizing her with everyone being mean and making unfair demands she refused she said i'm gonna sit here you go ahead and get those police

officers because i'm going to do what's right so the police came here is the police report that they filled out and they explained the situation how unfair is that she got arrested for sitting in the seat that she deserved to sit in this picture was taken just before she actually went in jail she had her fingerprints taken by this officer thankfully she didn't have to stay in jail very long at all she got out soon because of friends and family and that's a really good thing because she did not deserve to be there just like

dr king was unfairly put in jail so was rosa parks she was still brave through it all she was not going to give in something had to be done something had to be done this was so unfair [Music] so they announced a bus boycott in montgomery the leaders of the civil rights movement in montgomery said you know what we've got to do something about this we're going to make sure that this stops now and you might be wondering what's a boycott that's a really good question a boycott is when you stop using a good or

a service in order to make a statement they were like hey if you're not gonna make things fair we're not gonna ride the bus because they knew that the buses needed them to continue to use their service they needed them to continue to ride the buses because of the money so they said okay we're not going to ride it anymore because it's not fair and you know what yeah there boom deal with it it's gonna hurt your bottom line you're gonna make less money rosa parks was held by other civil rights leaders like dr king

as we mentioned earlier who was only 26 years old during the montgomery bus boycott which is what it became known as became known as the montgomery bus boycott and boy did it work all the buses were missing out on so much money they were hurting they were having to change some of their strategies they were like what are we gonna do they were panicking they were losing money like crazy [Music] the boycott lasted just over one year so lasted a pretty long time the boycott ended when the supreme court ruled that segregation on public transportation

is illegal it's a shame they didn't declare all segregation illegal all segregation didn't become illegal until the civil rights act of 1960 but this was a big victory and it ended the boycott because it made segregation on public transportation like buses illegal now after the montgomery bus boycott rosa parks moved to detroit michigan her brother lived in detroit [Music] in detroit rosa parks continued to dedicate her life to the civil rights movement she wrote books made speeches and continued to fight for african-american rights then in 1996 president clinton presented rosa parks with the presidential medal

of freedom a huge honor for an incredible woman after living a full life rosa parks passed away nine years later at the age of 92. her entire life was dedicated to civil rights and that legacy and that impact is still felt by millions today [Music] rosa parks a civil rights activist that was later named the first lady of civil rights and the mother of the freedom movement thanks for watching this video on rosa parks the mother of the freedom movement the first lady of civil rights she was so brave she was so courageous she was

not afraid to do the right thing and let's all aspire to be that way to be inspired to do the right thing no matter what