Write Your Reflections on Rosa Parks

What You Need:

• Age appropriate book about Rosa Parks (Try Boycott Blues: How Rosa Parks Inspired a NationBy Andrea Davis Pinkney)
• Paper
• Pencil

What You Do:

1. Together with your child, read about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. 
2. Discuss your child’s opinions about Rosa Park's actions and the boycott in general. Ask your child to think about the following questions:

• Why were blacks and whites segregated in the first place?
• The segregation laws were supposed to create “separate but equal” status for black Americans. Was it fair to make blacks sit in the back of the bus?
• Did Rosa Parks do the right thing by not vacating her seat to a white person? What would your child have done in Rosa’s situation? 
• What would life be like today if segregation were still legal? How would it affect your child’s daily routine such as school life, friendships, extracurricular activities, the neighbourhood he lives in, and family get-togethers?

3. Ask your child to write a couple of paragraphs describing his feelings about how Rosa Parks and other African-Americans were treated during that time.
4. After he gets his thoughts on paper, ask your child read his response out loud to you.