Our Country's Turning Points

Rosa Parks

Freedom Riders

Birmingham, 1963

By Aarushi P. and Mikayla S.

Our country's turning points...

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Rosa Parks was known for getting arrested for sitting in the whites-only side on a bus. After the bus driver asked her to move to make room for a white person, she didn't. The bus driver called the cops. Rosa parks was arrested but she was also tired of whites having priority so she took action. Rosa Parks then influenced the Montgomory Bus boycott in 1955. They decided to boycott the bus company and walk/ride bikes instead. The bus company lost a lot of money during the boycott, after time they desegrated busses. The boycott lasted 382 days. As a result busses now have to show a certification stating that the bus is not segregated.

Rosa Parks and The Montgomery Bus Boycott

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Freedom riders

The Freedom Riders protested because they wanted to figure out if they could sit wherever they wanted on busses. So they set out on multiple greyhound buses sitting wherever they wanted . However in Anniston, Alabama, one bus was bombed by the KKK, and multiple freedom riders were assulted and attacked. After the voilence John F Kennedy negotiated with the governer of Alabama and gave protection to greyhound buses. They reached thier intended location of New Orleans in the fall of 1961. As a result Interstate buses now needed to display on their buses that seating was not influenced by race, color, or origin.

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Birmingham, 1963

The Children's March of Birmingham occurred in 1963. It took place on 16th Street. They surrounded a Baptist church and started protesting. MLK influenced this grand march and actually came to Birmingham. The children were met with a lot of violence. People saw the violence they faced and were so angry. Eventually, they finished the march and got segregation to be abolished!!!

This is one of the segregated busess!

The bus

the segregated busses.

This is the bus that Rosa Parks was arrested on. It looks very old timey, it doesnt look like something we would see in this era. Its unique and you can tell it has a lot of personality. The color definitely matches the 50's and its discoloration tells you it's been through a lot.

Mugshot

7053 Numberplate

If you notice in Rosa Parks's Mugshot, she looks so calm! I could never be as calm as her when I was arrested! This artifact has her number plate. It shows what number she was labeled as during her time in jail. She must be one fearless young lady. Her mugshot was taken in February 1956. She was only in jail for a few hours.

This is one of the busess that were used for transportation!

The bus

When they got attacked

This bus is a very famous bus because this is the bus were the KKK attacked a group of freedom riders while they were traveling. The KKK was very abd peole who turend to violnece against people.

The March

The march was very voilent especially towards kids. They used hoses and threw things at the kids and adults. People saw this an were absolutely heartbroken.

Hoses were used on adults and kids to make them stop marching. It would rip their skin and their flesh. It was just horribble what these people did to them. Especially kids!

Newspapers

This is one of the newspapers that was posted about the Birmingham Marches. This informed people around the country an they read in horror when they heard what was happening. Imagine reading that! I would be devisated!

This bus seat shows the time that's passed since the protest. Notice how it looks very different to bus seats now. This connects to the Montgomery boycott because it shows how much room they had.

Bus Seat

This is a bus seat from the same bus Rosa Parks sat in! Imagine how old and worn out it must be! Th at bus sure does hold a lot of memories!

The freedom riders route was from Washington Dc all the way to New Orleans. That's a very long trip. Their objective was to find out if they could sit whever they wanted on a segregated bus. After a lot of violence they did succeed!

All Aboard!!

This is a bus ticket that the actual freedom riders used to get onto a bus! Cool, right?! There were no rules on these busses except that the driver was expected to drop them off at a location listed. Thats really crazy! 🫠🥲🙃

This is one of the letters MLK wrote, he spent a lot of time in jail figuring out how he could help African Americans.

The letters

When MLK was arrested for marching, he spent a lot of time in jail reflecting. HE wrote multiple letters stating his goals for the future. He wanted to show how he wanted to improve civil rights for all African Americans.

This is how they used to advertise at that time. This movement was very small at first so it took a lot of time to get people to join. However, once they found enough people that were brave enough, they were very successful!

Advertising!

This is a poster that was used to advertise and get more people to come together because freedom riders were b eing arrested!! It definitely looks old, but the information is really straightforward and cool to look at! 😁