A lesson in courage: fifty years ago, Rosa Parks changed the country forever.

Cast of Characters

(Main characters are In boldface.)

Narrators 1, 2, 3

Bus driver

Rosa Parks

Bus riders 1, 2

Police officers 1, 2

E. D. Nixon, civil rights leader Raymond Parks, Rosa Parks's

husband

Protesters 1, 2, 3

Fred Gray, Rosa Parks's lawyer

Judge

Growing up, Rosa Parks knew what to do when she saw a school bus--hide. The bus wasn't coming to take her to school, it was only for white children, and when the kids saw Rosa walking, they would pelt her with trash.

In the 1920s, the South was segregated. African Americans didn't have the same rights as white people. They were forced to sit in the back of public buses and could not go to the same schools as white people.

Rosa Parks hated segregation. She refused to drink from water fountains designated for "colored" people. (At that time, some people referred to black people as "colored.") She joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to fight for equal rights.

On Dec. 1, 1955, Parks took a stand that …