EDUCATION MONTH ESSAYS The essays on this page have been provided by a wide cross-section of Bermuda's school children as their contribution to Education Month. Every Thursday in February, The Royal Gazette , in conjuction with the Department of Education, will present a page of students' work.

Rosa Louise Parks is called "The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement''.

She was given this name because on December 1st 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama she got on a public bus from a hard day at work. A white person got on the bus and she refused to surrender her seat. She didn't argue and she didn't move.

The bus driver called the Police and she was arrested that day. She was the first African American to be arrested for this crime. So because of Rosa Park's arrest, Martin Luther King felt that there should be a boycott of the buses. The boycott lasted for 381 days.

If Rosa Parks did not stand up for her rights we probably would have to sit in the back of the bus and be treated differently in a lot of ways. Rosa Parks was brave and her actions led to other peaceful ways of demonstrating. Rosa Louise Parks is called "The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement'' because she stood up for what she believed in at a time that was dangerous and for that we should honour her.

Kenneth Burgess M1 Clearwater Middle School