Historical Fiction ebook

Setting - Geography

My story will take place in Montgomery, Alabama. Montgomery is the fourth most populous metropolitan area in Alabama. It is located southeast of the center of the state. In 1819 the city was incorporated as a merger of two towns located along the Alabama River. In 1846, Montgomery became the state capitol. The city has a total area of 156.2 square miles. 155.4 square miles of that is land, and 0.8 square miles of it is water. The elevation of the city is 220 feet above sea level. The climate is roughly the same as our climate in Vermont. The temperature varies a few degrees in comparison to our temperatures. The bus boycott and Rosa's arrest was taken place in Montgomery which is why I chose to stick to that. The majority of my story involves the civil right movement which took place more in the south. In the north, there was much less segregation. The amount of african americans in that part of our country was a lot more compared to other areas, which backs up and helps my story. I could have chosen a different city or state, but Montgomery is a highly populated city. This affects the bus boycott; the more people, the bigger effect the boycott has. Also, if I chose an area that was very close together, the bus boycott wouldn't be very hard to be dedicated to. Montgomery, being a very large city (156.2 square miles) anyone contributing to this boycott would have to walk farther to wherever they're going. That adds to the affect it has all the riders, which I am assuming was a lot.

Setting - Mood

The mood for my story will mostly be tense/suspenseful yet dramatic/relieved. When Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat and when she and Martin Luther King, Jr. help with the bus boycott the mood will be very suspenseful. The reader will be wondering what will then happen, and how she'll get out of jail. After that, Maya Angelou will hear Rosa Parks is in jail for not giving up her seat to a white man, which is when she'll start writing poems to the surrounding community. This will make the story very dramatic. Everyone will be very touched by the poems, and Rosa Parks will be let out of Jail. The mood will then changed to relieved. Anything could have happend to Rosa when she was in jail, and she could have been there for many years for what she'd done. African Americans , especially, will be very relieved when she was released. When Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. are involved with the Montgomery bus boycott after Rosa is let out of jail, the story will be tense again. Maya Angelou will help with the affect of this boycott by writing more inspiring poems to the community.

Setting - Time

My story will take place in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which is when Rosa, Martin, and Maya were all strongly involved with the civil rights movement. Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955, after she refused to give up her seat on an Alabama bus. That was also when Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks formed a boycott of the Montgomery, Alabama buses. At this time Maya Angelou was touring Europe, which is where she did a lot of studying, but in 1964 Maya came back to America, which is where she helped more with the civil rights movement. She moved to New York, but I am altering that and having her move down south to Montgomery where Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. will be.







This is the bus Rosa Parks was riding when she refused to move from her seat and was arrested. It is the No. 2857. This is an exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum.












This picture was taken in 1943, and it relates
to my story because all three of my characters were highly involved with the civil rights movement. It's showing the racial segregation between blacks and whites.










This is a picture of Montgomery, Alabama in the mid 1940s. My story takes place around that time so I think it's a good relation to show what the city looked like in that time.

This picture shows what kind of cars were driven in the time my story takes place, which is mid 1950s and early 1960s.







This is a typical picture of what a woman would wear in the 1955s which is about the time my story is taking place.

Sources

Picture Sources:

Rosa Parks:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Rosaparks.jpg

Maya Angelou:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Maya_angelou.jpg

Martin Luther King, Jr.:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Matin_Luther_King_Jr_NYWTS.jpg

Information Sources:

Rosa Parks:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_parks

Maya Angelou:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_angelou

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/ang0bio-1

Martin Luther King, Jr.:

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html

Setting - Time

Rose Parks - bus : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rosa_Parks_Bus.jpg

'Colored' picture - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:1943 colored waiting room sign.jpg

Picture of Montgomery, Alabama - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Montgomery_Alabama_aerial_1940s.jpg

1955 Car - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/1955_Chevrolet_Bel_Air_xep833.jpg

1955 dress -http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/1955Dress.jpg

Geography -

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Lower_Commerce_Street_Montgomery_2.jpg

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. lived a fairly short but very fulfilled life. He was an African American activist, and he was a strong leader of the civil rights movement. Today, he is referred to as a human rights icon. He became a civil rights activist early on in his career. It started when he led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. Then in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. was a leader of the March on Washington, which is where he presented his "I have a dream" speech. The speech was mostly explaining his take on civil rights, and shared his vision that black and white people should have racial equality. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. He was awarded with it in 1964 for his attempts to end racial segregation and discrimination, and for promoting it under nonviolent terms. He was an especially inspiring speaker. Martin Luther King, Jr. sadly ended his life on April 4, 1968. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. He was awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, Congressional Gold Medal in 2004, and he was also honored with a U.S. national holiday in 1986, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was known for a few things, but most importantly she was known for her great flair at poetry. She was born as Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis Missouri. Her childhood wasn't as easy as some people would think. Her parents divorced when Maya was only three years old, and she was then sent to live with her brother Bailey at their grandmother's in Arkansas. That was where her name changed to Maya: her brother, who she became very close with, nicknamed her that. When Maya was seven she visited her mother in Chicago, which is where she was molested by her mother's boyfriend. She was too ashamed to tell any adult, so she confided in her brother. Shortly after, her brother had told the rest of their family, and the mother's boyfriend went to jail for a day. Four days after he was released one of Maya's uncles killed him. This lead Maya to become mute. She stated, "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone...". She started talking again when she was 13 years old. Throughout her life, she has always been very interested and dedicated to dance, performance, and poetry. She toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess in 1954 and 1955. She studied modern dance and performed a variety of shows, recording her first album Calypso Lady in 1957. Her interest in developing her writing skills convinced Maya Angelou to move to New York where she joined the Harlem Writers Guide. She took her place among the young writers and artists that were associated with the civil rights movement. Throughout her life she was involved with the civil right movement and she began working closely with Martin Luther King, Jr. Later on, Maya became known nationally. Martin Luther King, Jr. requested that Maya served at the Norther Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Maya was known mostly because of her talent in the many books she'd written, her role in the civil rights movement, and most importantly for her extremely inspiring poetry.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She was unable to graduate high school due to the illness of her grandmother Rose Edwards, so she received her high school diploma in 1934. Rosa Parks was nationally recognized as the "mother of the modern day civil rights movement" in America. It all began on December 1, 1955 when she refused to give up her seat to a white male passenger on a bus in Montogmery, Alabama. She began to enroll in the Montgomery Improvement Association, which was led by a few people including Martin Luther King, Jr. The association was formed for a boycott of the city-owned bus company. This boycott lasted 382 days and brought the cause from Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. to the attention of the world. In effect from this event, there was a Supreme Court Decision that outlawed racial segregation on public transportation. In 1977, after the death of Raymond Parks, Rosa's husband, she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. It was an anual summer program for teenagers called Pathways to Freedom. The teenagers would tour the country in buses, learning the history of their country and of the civil rights movement. President Clinton awarded Rosa Parks with the Presedential Medal of Freedom in 1996, and she received a Congressional Gold Medal in 1999. Rosa Parks died at the age of 92 on October 24, 2005, and after her death, her casket was placed in the rotunda of the United States Capitol for two days. The purpose of this was so that the nation could pay its respects to the person who had changed many lives throughout her lifetime. Rosa Parks was the first person to lie in state at the Capitol besides any Presidents of the United States.