How Rosa Parks took a stand against racism

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 8 February 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rosa Parks was brought up in Alabama during the Jim Crow era, when state laws enforced segregation in practically all aspects of daily life.

Public schools, water fountains, trains and buses all had to have separate facilities for white people and black people.

As a passionate civil rights activist, Rosa was determined to change this.

In December 1955, she was travelling home from the department store where she worked as a seamstress.

When a white passenger boarded the bus, Rosa was told to give up her seat.

Her refusal to do so and subsequent arrest sparked a bus boycott in the city of Montgomery, led by Dr Martin Luther King.

Using BBC interviews with Rosa and Dr King, Vicky Farncombe tells how Rosa’s story changed civil rights history and led to the end of segregation.

This programme includes outdated and offensive language.

(Photo: Rosa Parks sitting on a bus. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm John Ronson and I'm an invisible enemy.
0:05.0	That changed people psychologically.
0:08.0	Words can be dangerous if you don't know the context.
0:12.0	We were told to stay at home.
0:15.0	We lived with an invisible enemy,
0:17.0	with only the internet for company.
0:19.0	That changed people psychologically.
0:21.0	I'm John Ronson, and I'll be unerthing the roots of the culture
0:24.8	wars that engulfed us then and still do now.
0:28.8	The award-winning podcast, Things Fell Apart, Returns.
0:33.0	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:35.0	You're listening to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me
0:44.9	Vicky Fancum. I've been listening to the archives to bring you the story of
0:50.1	Rosa Parks, honored in the United States as the First Lady of Civil Rights.
0:56.3	She changed history when she refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white man.
1:02.1	This program features outdated and offensive language.
1:07.0	Ladies and gentlemen, I want to introduce to you the woman who started our modern struggle for freedom because she got tired of indignity and dim crow and sat down and when
1:31.4	Rosa Parks sat down, a revolution broke forth.
1:37.0	Rosa Parks!
1:40.0	That's Rosa Parks, being introduced at the Washington Freedom March in August 1963.
1:47.0	Rosa was brought up in Alabama during the Jim Crow era when state laws enforced segregation in practically all aspects of daily life.
1:57.0	Public schools, water fountains, trains and buses all had to have separate facilities for white people and black people.
	...

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