Inspired by Rosa Parks
by
by
2 min readRosa Parks, born Feb. 4, 1913, was one of the great civil rights pioneers of the 20th century. After a lifetime dealing with Montgomery, Alabama's racist law forcing Black citizens who rode city buses to sit in segregated seats at the back, Parks finally decided one Thursday in 1955 to hold her ground and say "no" to discrimination. For her courage, she was arrested, inspiring civil rights activists to boycott the city's buses for more than a year, until finally the city repealed the law.
Getty Images / Universal History Archive
In the decades since that 1955 act of defiance, Rosa Parks has touched the lives of countless citizens and fellow civil rights supporters. Some were inspired from afar, while others proudly met Parks and worked alongside her in the struggle for equal rights for all Americans. For many, it was an experience so unforgettable that it even made its way into their obituaries. Today, we honor Rosa Parks by meeting some of the people whose lives she forever changed.
Civil rights activist Johnnie Carr didn't have to look far to find her Rosa Parks inspiration: She and Parks were childhood friends. Like Parks, Carr became an integral part of the civil rights movement. She participated with Parks in the historic Montgomery bus boycott, and in 1967 she succeeded Martin Luther King Jr. as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, a position she held until her death.
Zelma Harris
TAGS
