Heroes come in all forms. We normally think of the big names, but even small acts of defiance can result in a person be labelled as a hero.
Rosa Parks is the embodiment of the Civil Disobedience movement associated with the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Civil Disobedience is the act of defying, or not following, an unjust law. In Rosa Parks' case, the law of segregation of Montgomery, Alabama buses. When asked to forfeit her seat for a white passenger, she refused. When faced with arrest, she still refused. She was arrested for this act.
Rosa Parks and her refusal to move was the spark that help set the fire of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, where people refused to use the bus services if they still practiced segregation. This boycott lasted over a year and ultimately lead to the Supreme Court of the United States ruling that segregation of buses violated the 14th Amendment (equal protection under the law).
Rosa Parks is just one of many examples of leaders in the fight for Civil Rights in the 1960s. We can also name Martin Luther King, Jr, Malcolm X, John Lewis, the Little Rock Nine, Ralph Abernathy, Fred Hampton, Linda Brown. As a result of these leaders, the country slowly moved from legally enforced Jim Crow Laws to racial equality.
To learn more about Civil Disobedience, read the following link: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/civil-disobedience/
Rosa Parks is a hero because she bravely took a stand for civil rights when it was dangerous to do so. Living in Montgomery, Alabama, she worked as a secretary at the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She and other NAACP activists had been planning to challenge the segregation of local buses, in which black people had to sit in the back and give up their seat when asked to do so by the driver or a white person. At that time, Alabama and other southern states were strictly segregated, and people who challenged these laws were subject to arrest and to retaliation by groups such as the KKK.
When a bus driver asked her to leave her seat for a white passenger on December 1, 1955, Parks peacefully refused and was arrested. Her arrest led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott of December 1955–December 1956. The boycott ended when a federal district court ruled that Montgomery's racially segregated buses were unlawful. Parks's brave actions showed the power of peaceful protest and the power of an individual to challenge an entrenched system. She became a hero of the larger Civil Rights movement in which other laws that disenfranchised blacks were challenged and defeated.
Rosa Parks is considered a hero because she stood up for equality for African Americans. In the South, segregation was legal. For example, there were separate seating sections on buses for whites and for blacks. On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks was sitting in the section of the bus reserved for African Americans. However, one white man was standing, so the bus driver ordered four African Americans to give up their seats. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. As a result, she was arrested. Her arrest led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. African Americans refused to ride the buses in Montgomery for 381 days until the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was illegal.
Rosa Parks stood up for equality. As a result of her actions, the civil rights movement took off in the South. Martin Luther King, Jr. became the leader of this movement. Eventually, African Americans gained many freedoms, such as the right to vote without restrictions and an end to segregation in public places. Because of her actions and the changes that resulted because of her actions, Rosa Parks is considered a hero.
https://myhero.com/rosaParks
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/montgomery-bus-boycott
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