Rosa Parks: segregation

Hi, I am Rosa Parks; I’m the woman who refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man. You may not understand, but there was segregation between white folk and us negro folk back in nineteen fifty-five; in those days folks called us coloured. Although segregation was just part of life in those days many black folks hated the way we were treated. There were separate toilets, one for whites and one for black people, even water fountains were segregated and down at the bus depot only white passengers had benches to sit on; we weren’t allowed to sit down, even if they were empty! On the bus black folk had to sit at the back, on seats just for black people, while the whites sat in the front rows. You know, if you were black and had paid your fair to the driver, just the same as a white person, if the bus was crowded, you had to walk around and get on at the back of the bus, just so you didn’t walk through and touch any of the white folk.