Resist !

For this exercise, you can either

C'est la que se met le lecteur. Ne pas effacer. A besoin de l'id

Rosa Parks explains what happened to her in Montgomery, Alabama when she was 42 years old.

When I got off from work that evening of December 1, I went to Court Square as usual to catch the Cleveland Avenue bus home. [... ]

I saw a vacant seat in the middle section of the bus and took it. I didn't even question why there was a vacant seat even though there were quite a few people standing in the back. If I had thought about it at all, I would probably have figured' maybe someone saw me get on and did not take the seat but left it vacant for me. There was a man sitting next to the window and two women across the aisle 2.

The next stop was the Empire Theater, and some whites got on. They filled up the white seats, and one man was left standing. The driver looked back and noticed the man standing. Then he looked back at us. He said, "Let me have those front seats;' because they were the front seats of the black section. Didn't anybody move. We just sat right where we were, the four of us. Then he spoke a second time: "Y'all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats:"

The man in the window seat next to me stood up, and I moved to let him pass by me, and then I looked across the aisle and saw that the two women were also standing. I moved over to the window seat. I could not see how standing up was going to "make it light" for me. The more we gave in and complied', the worse they treated us. [... ]

The driver of the bus saw me still sitting there, and he asked was I going to stand up. I said, "No:" He said, "Well, I'm going to have you arrested:" Then I said, "You may do that:" These were the only words we said to each other. I didn't even know his name, which was James Blake, until we were in court4 together. He got out of the bus and stayed outside for a few minutes, waiting for the police.

As I sat there, I tried not to think about what might happen. I knew that anything was possible. I could be manhandled or beaten. I could be arrested. [. .. ] In fact if I had let myself think too deeply about what might happen to me, I might have gotten off the bus. But I chose to remain.