The online tool for teaching with documents, from the National Archives

A Famous Person and Event are Revealed

Focusing on Details: White Out/Black Out

All documents and text associated with this activity are printed below, followed by a worksheet for student responses.

Introduction

In this activity, you will examine a document. It's part of a famous story. Find all the facts. Then, try to put them all together to discover what this document is and whom the story is about.


Name:
Class:

Worksheet

A Famous Person and Event are Revealed

Focusing on Details: White Out/Black Out

Examine the documents included in this activity and write your response in the space provided.


Look carefully at this document. It's part of a famous story, but an important clue has been blacked out. Use every bit of information contained here to describe what you see. Then, apply your knowledge of history to figure out what this document is and whom the story is about.

Your Response




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Activity Element



Conclusion

A Famous Person and Event are Revealed

Focusing on Details: White Out/Black Out

This document tells part of a famous story of a person, of a group of people, and of our country. It's a big story of courage and audacity, and this document provides the evidence of what really happened.

  • What evidence was most helpful?
  • What was confusing or surprising?
  • What helped you discover whom this story is about?

Look at other documents related to Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement. Tell the story of Ms. Rosa Parks using this document and others as the factual basis of your narrative.

Your Response




Document

Police Report on Arrest of Rosa Parks

1955

In 1955, a 42-year-old seamstress touched off a 381-day boycott of the Montgomery, Alabama, bus system when she was arrested for failing to yield her seat to a white man. This is the record of Rosa Parks’s arrest. A few days later, she was fined $10 plus $4. for court costs. A 26-year-old unknown minister, Martin Luther King, Jr., emerged as the leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Text adapted from “The Arrest Records of Rosa Parks” in the May/June 1999 National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) publication Social Education.
This primary source comes from the Records of District Courts of the United States.
National Archives Identifier: 596074
Full Citation: Police Report on Arrest of Rosa Parks; 1955; Aurelia S. Browder et al. v. W. A. Gayle et al., No. 1147; Civil Cases, 9/1938 - 11/26/1968; Records of District Courts of the United States, ; National Archives at Atlanta, Morrow, GA. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/police-report-on-arrest-of-rosa-parks, March 29, 2024]


Police Report on Arrest of Rosa Parks

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Police Report on Arrest of Rosa Parks

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