Childhood, 1931-1955

On December 18, 1932 Rosa Parks married Raymond Parks, Montgomery barber, in a small ceremony performed at her mother’s home. They had their honeymoon in Arizona for five days.  Her husband encouraged her to finish high school and get her diploma; she graduated in 1933. She later worked as a seamstress.  After three tries Rosa was able to register to vote. Rosa helped her husband raise money for the defense of the Scottsboro Boys. After doing that Rosa became a member of the Montgomery chapter of NAACP and was their secretary. That job lasted for thirteen years then Rosa took a job working on the Maxwell Air Force Base. While working for Maxwell Rosa was treated equal and it was a turning point in her attitude towards civil rights. Rosa didn’t intend on being arrested when she got on the bus and she would have paid attention to who the bus driver was she wouldn’t have ever road it. She had sat on the back of the bus behind the white people section. So the bus was crowded and a white man got on the bus an all the other black people moved except Rosa. She said to herself “I am not going to move today even if the bus driver tells me to; I’m tired of white people getting to tell me what to do just because I’m different color than them.” (Clare)  The bus driver told her to move to the back or he was going to call the cops, so when she didn’t move he called the cops like he said. So Rosa got arrested and convicted with violating the law of segregation.