Summer Learning Journey Week 2 Day 2 Activity 3

Activity 3: “I Have a Dream” [6 points]

Martin Luther King Jr was a Christian minister in the United States of America (USA) in the 1950s and 1960s. He spent much of his life fighting for equality (equal rights) for people of colour. At the time, there were laws that kept black and white people separated - they went to different schools, used different toilets, and even sat in different parts of a bus and ate in different areas of a restaurant. This was called ‘segregation.’

Dr King did not agree with these laws and he led many protests against them. He was joined in his protests by many people, including an African American woman named Rosa Parks. In 1955, Rosa boarded a bus in Alabama (USA) and when the bus filled up with people, she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. You can read about this famous incident here and watch a video about Rosa Parks here.

The brave actions of people like Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks were instrumental in changing the way that African Americans (people of colour) were treated in the United States.

For this activity, please consider the problem that black men and women faced in America at this time.

On your blog, describe the problem. What did Rosa Parks do about the problem? How did other people react?

One day Rosa Parks boarded a bus and It was full of white people. When another white man boarded the bus, the driver told her to give up her spot but she refused to give up her spot which got the driver so angry that he told the police and they made her pay and  would take her to jail, she refused to pay because she wasn't wrong but the law was wrong.