Rosa Parks - The Face of Pure Humility

Rosa Parks was a very important individual who had a significant impact in the Civil Rights Movement. She is a very inspirational woman who people not only in the United States of America look up to but people around the world. Rosa Parks is the definition of a good leader. She was brave, passionate and she stood up for her beliefs. Rosa Parks had many great achievements. Some of them will be discussed later in this essay.

Her fist major achievement was the part she played in organizing the legal defense of the Scottsboro Boys. Rosa Parks’ activism career actually started way before the time when she refused to give up her seat on the bus in 1955. In 1931 nine African America boys were accused of raping two white girls during a train ride. Rosa Parks along with some other activists and her husband organized secret meetings in order to try and raise money to pay for the defense of the young boys. Unfortunately, only two of the boys did not serve time.

Rosa Parks was also the secretary of Edgar Nixon, who is the leader of the NAACP, in Montgomery. She served as secretary for 14 years. While she was in this position, she used the allies she had made during the Scottsboro case to try and protect African American women from being raped by white men.

The achievement she is most known for is of course her refusal to give up her seat on the bus. The bus became crowded, so black bus riders were ordered to leave and give up their seats for the white people. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat which led to the police getting involved. She was then arrested and charged with violating the law of segregation. After the incident happened African Americans in Montgomery boycotted the city busses for racially segregating people. This boycott was regarded as the first massive demonstration against segregation. Because of her refusal to give in and everything that followed she is regarded as the mother of the Civil Rights movement.

Rosa Parks is the definition of a reluctant leader. She had no interest in leading the Civil Rights Movement nor did she intend on getting arrested for not standing up. She simply felt that it was time someone did something and she saw an opportunity and went for it. She didn’t want to be a martyr or a leader she just felt like she had no other option, and that it was time someone spoke up. That is a leader. Sometimes leaders appear because the feel like they do not have another option. It is not always someone in a leadership role who steps up. Rosa parks was a lot like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. in that she believed in non-violent protesting. All three of these great leaders protested non-violently and used shame and their own suffering, such as going to jail, to bring attention to their cause. They had humility.

Humility is, in my opinion, one of the most significant character traits. Nobody likes dealing with a know-it-all. There are few things that are as annoying as a know-it-all. Embrace humility. Everyone is going to trip and fall in life sometimes, stay humble so people around you will lift you up instead of knocking you down. People also tend to be much more lenient when people admit to their mistakes.