Part B Reading Practice Rosa Parks, 1913-2005 : Mother of the American Until the nineteen sixties, black people in many parts of the United States did not have the same civil rights as white people. Laws in the American South kept the two races separate. These laws forced black people to attend separate schools, live in separate areas of a city and sit in separate areas on a bus. On December the first, nineteen fifty-five, in the southern city of Montgomery, a forty-two-year old black woman got on a city bus. The law at that time required black people seated in one area of the bus to give up their seats to white people who wanted them. The woman refused to do this and was arrested. This act of peaceful disobedience started protests in Montgomery that led to legal changes in minority rights in the United States. The woman who started it was Rosa Parks. She was born Rosa Louise McCauley in nineteen-thirteen in Tuskegee. She attended local schools until she was eleven years old. Then she was sent to school in Montgomery. She did not finish high school until she was twenty-one. Rosa married Raymond Parks in nineteen thirty-two. He was a barber as well as a civil rights activist. Together, they worked for the local group of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Rosa Parks was a seamstress in Montgomery. She worked sewing clothes from the nineteen thirties until nineteen fifty-five. Then she became a representation of freedom for millions of African-Americans. In much of the American South in the nineteen fifties, the first rows of seats on city buses were for white people only. Black people sat in the back of the bus. Both groups could sit in a middle area. However, black people sitting in that part of the bus were expected to leave their seats if a white person wanted to sit there. Rosa Parks and three other black people were seated in the middle area of the bus when a white person got on the bus and wanted a seat. The bus driver demanded that all four black people leave their seats so the white person would not have to sit next to any of them. The three other blacks got up, but Parks refused. She was arrested. Some popular stories about that incident include the statement that Rosa Parks refused to leave her seat because her feet were tired. But she herself said in later years that this was false. What she was really tired of, she said, was accepting unequal treatment. She explained later that this seemed to be the place for her to stop being pushed around and to find out what human rights she had, if any. A group of black activist women in Montgomery was known as the Women’s Political Council. The group was working to oppose the mistreatment of black bus passengers. Blacks had been arrested and even killed for violating orders from bus drivers. Rosa Parks was not the first black person to refuse to give up a seat on the bus for a white person. But black groups in Montgomery considered her to be the right citizen around whom to build a protest because she was one of the finest citizens of the city. The women’s group immediately called for all blacks in the city to refuse to ride on city buses on the day of Parks’s trial, Monday, December the fifth. The result was that forty thousand people walked and used other transportation on that day. That night, at meetings throughout the city, blacks in Montgomery agreed to continue to boycott the city buses until their mistreatment stopped. Similar protests were held in other southern cities. Finally, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on Parks’s case. It made racial separation illegal on city buses. After the bus boycott, she was dismissed from her job and could not find another. So the Parks family left Montgomery. They moved first to Virginia, then to Detroit, Michigan. Parks worked as a seamstress until nineteen sixty-five. Then, Michigan Representative John Conyers gave her a job working in his congressional office in Detroit. She retired from that job in nineteen eighty-eight. Through the years, Rosa Parks continued to work for the NAACP and appeared at civil rights events. She said that she wanted to help people, especially young people, to make useful lives for themselves and to help others. In nineteen eighty-seven, she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development to improve the lives of black children. Rosa Parks received two of the nation’s highest honors for her civil rights activism. In nineteen ninety-six, President Clinton honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And in nineteen ninety-nine, she received the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor. Rosa Parks died on October twenty-fourth, two thousand five. She was ninety-two years old. Her body lay in honor in the United States Capitol building in Washington. She was the first American woman to be so honored. Rosa Parks meant a lot to many Americans. Four thousand people attended her funeral in Detroit, Michigan. Among them were former President Bill Clinton, his wife Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. President Clinton spoke about remembering the separation of the races on buses in the South when he was a boy. He said that Rosa Parks helped to set all Americans free. He said the world knows of her because of a single act of bravery that struck a deadly blow to racial hatred. New Words, Phrases and Expressions disobedience /dɪsə’biːdɪəns/ n. failure or refusal to obey 不顺从;不服从 civil /’sɪv(ə)l; -ɪl/ adj. a place where you can buy and eat food 餐馆;饮食店 protest /prə’test;’prəʊtest/ n. statement or an action that show one’s strong disapproval or disagreement 抗议;抗议书;抗议活动 v. express strong disagreement or disapproval about 抗议;反对 activist /’æktɪvɪst/ n. person who takes or supports vigorous action, esp for a political cause 积 极分子(参与或支持激烈活动的人,尤指政治方面) seamstress /’siːmstrɪs/ n. woman who sews, esp as a paid job 缝纫女工;女裁缝 representation / ̧reprɪzen’teɪʃ(ə)n/ n. act of representing or state of being represented 代表;代理 boycott /’bɒɪkɒt/ vt. (usu of a group of people) refuse to have social or commercial relations with (a person, company, country, etc) (通常指一群人)拒绝与(某人、 公司、国家等)交往或通商 refuse to handle or buy; refuse to take part in 拒绝处理或购买;拒绝参加;抵制 n. refusal to deal or trade with; refusal to handle 抵制 dismiss /dɪs’mɪs/ vt. remove somebody from a position 免除某人的职务;开除;解雇 congressional /kən’greʃənəl/ adj. of a congress or Congress 代表大会的;国会的;最高立法机关的 funeral /’fjuːn(ə)r(ə)l/ n. ceremony of burying or burning dead people 葬礼;出殡 hatred /’heɪtrɪd/ n. very strong dislike; hate 仇恨;憎恨 Notes 1. Black people in many parts of the United States did not have the same civil rights as white people. civil rights 公民权 civil rights movement 民权运动 2. The woman who started it was Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks 罗莎 • 帕克斯。 1955 年 12 月 1 日,时年 42 岁的帕克斯在一辆公共汽车上就座时,司机要求黑人给白人让座。帕克斯拒绝了司机的要求,遭到监禁,并被罚款 10 美元。她的被捕引发了蒙哥马利市( Montgomery )长达 381 天的黑人抵制公交。这场运动的结果是 1956 年最高法院裁决禁止公车上的 “ 黑白隔离 ” 。 1964 年出台的民权法案禁止在公共场所实行种族隔离和种族歧视政策。帕克斯从此被尊为美国 “ 民权运动之母 ” 。 3. Together, they worked for the local group of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 美国全国有色人种协进会,即美国白人和有色人种组成的旨在促进黑人民权的全国性组织,总部设在纽约。该组织的目标是保证每个人的政治、社会、教育和经济权利,并消除种族仇视和种族歧视。 4. To stop being pushed around and to find out what human rights she had, if any. push around 摆布,欺负,把 ...... 推来推去 I am tired of being pushed around by him 我厌倦了被他欺负。 5. Finally, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on Parks’s case. rule on 就 ...... 进行裁决 6. President Clinton honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Presidential Medal of Freedom 总统自由勋章。该奖是美国最高荣誉的文职勋章,由美国总统一年一度颁发,与国会金质奖章并列为美国最高的平民荣誉,科学、文化、体育和社会活动等领域作出杰出贡献的平民颁发。最早于 1945 年由杜鲁门总统创立,以表彰在第二次世界大战中有杰出贡献的平民。 1963 年约翰 • 肯尼迪总统重新恢复该勋章,并扩充得奖对象,修改为授予在和平时期有杰出贡献的平民。 7. And in nineteen ninety-nine, she received the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor. Congressional Gold Medal 国会金质奖章。该奖由美国国会颁发,与总统自由勋章并列为美国最高的平民荣誉。受奖者可以不是美国公民,但需要对美国的社会、文化、艺术、经济等非军事领域做出 “ 超过一般人的努力和贡献 ” 。 8. Her body lay in honor in the United States Capitol building in Washington. Capitol building 美国国会大厦。美国国会所在地,位于美国首都华盛顿 — 哥伦比亚特区( Washington.D.C )。美国人把国会大厦称为 Capitol (也叫 Congress building ),将其视为民有、民治、民享政权的最高象征。 9. A single act of bravery that struck a deadly blow to racial hatred. strike a deadly blow 致命一击