Rosa Parks: My Story: Chapters 4–8

by Rosa Parks, James Haskins
In this autobiography, the author shares how a sickly child grew up to become a public symbol and activist for civil rights.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1–3, Chapters 4–8, Chapters 9–12
35 words 5 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. aversion
    a feeling of intense dislike
    I had an aversion to white men, with the exception of my grandfather, and Raymond Parks was very light-skinned.
  2. deacon
    a cleric ranking just below a priest in Christian churches
    The wife of one of the deacons told the pastor that he had not watered the shrubbery.
  3. accost
    approach and speak to someone aggressively or insistently
    Parks said he always did his best to get along, but whenever white people accosted him, he always wanted to let them know he could take care of business if he had to.
  4. sassy
    improperly forward or bold
    White folks used to say you were sassy if you spoke right up to them.
  5. meek
    very docile
    I was very impressed by the fact that he didn’t seem to have that meek attitude—what we called an “Uncle Tom” attitude—toward white people.
  6. condemn
    pronounce a punishment, as in a court of law
    I thought it was awful that they were condemned to die for a crime they did not commit.
  7. regard
    an attitude of admiration or respect
    It demonstrated how little regard segregationists had for the lives of black people and the lengths they would go to, to keep us in fear.
  8. railroad
    compel by coercion, threats, or crude means
    By this time the case had made the newspapers, and people outside the South were up in arms about the way the young men had been railroaded.
  9. execution
    putting a condemned person to death
    Between them these two organizations managed to get the execution date set aside and filed an appeal.
  10. appeal
    a legal proceeding to review a lower court decision
    In November the United States Supreme Court ordered a new trial for the defendants on the grounds that the lawyer at the first trials did not really represent them. The trials and appeals went on for years and years.
  11. integrated
    designated as available to all races or groups
    The base was integrated because President Roosevelt had issued an order forbidding segregation in the public places, trolleys, or buses at military bases.
  12. concession
    a small business that operates in a larger business or public place
    I did not experience any unpleasant incidents, but years later my husband got a job at the barber shop on the base, which was a private concession.
  13. vouch
    give personal assurance; guarantee
    In order to get registered, blacks had to have white people to vouch for them.
  14. privileged
    blessed with special advantages
    Those who were in good favor with the white folks didn’t want to lose their privileged position.
  15. necessarily
    as a highly likely consequence
    Even if you got inside, you couldn’t necessarily be registered.
  16. retroactive
    affecting things past
    The poll tax was $1.50 a year, and every registered voter had to pay it. But it was mostly black people who had to pay it retroactive.
  17. considerable
    large in number, amount, extent, or degree
    I got registered in 1945 when I was thirty-two years old, so I had to pay $1.50 for each of the eleven years between the time I was twenty-one and the time I was thirty-two. At that time $16.50 was a considerable amount of money.
  18. suit
    any proceeding in a court whereby an individual seeks a legal remedy
    If I had brought suit against the voter-registration people, I would have had to get someone to represent me. And in the beginning there was no black lawyer in Montgomery I could call on.
  19. reactionary
    extremely conservative or resistant to change
    I voted for Jim Folsom, who was running against a very reactionary and very racist man named Handy Ellis.
  20. decent
    socially or conventionally correct; refined or virtuous
    Some bus drivers were meaner than others. Not all of them were hateful, but segregation itself is vicious, and to my mind there was no way you could make segregation decent or nice or acceptable.
  21. stoop
    bend one's back forward from the waist on down
    Rather than stoop or bend over to get it, I sat right down in the front seat and from a sitting position I picked up my purse.
  22. reprisal
    a retaliatory action against an enemy
    Parks was a member of the Montgomery branch, but he did not encourage me to join because he felt it was too dangerous. Members of the Montgomery NAACP risked reprisals for being activists.
  23. pamper
    treat with excessive indulgence
    A woman on the parole board suggested that Andy and the other Scottsboro Boys were not treated badly in prison because they had received money from northern sympathizers. She referred to them as being “pampered.”
  24. grand jury
    a panel to determine if a case should be brought to trial
    A Henry County grand jury refused to indict the six white men, although the driver of the kidnap car confessed and named his accomplices.
  25. indict
    accuse formally of a crime
    The NAACP and the committee managed to get Governor Chauncey Sparks to convene a special grand jury to investigate the case, but that special grand jury also refused to indict the men.
  26. in vain
    without a successful result or effect
    Sometimes it was very difficult to keep going when all our work seemed to be in vain.
  27. miscegenation
    marriage or reproduction by people of different races
    There were laws against miscegenation, which means blacks and whites having affairs or marrying.
  28. notarize
    authenticate by someone empowered to witness signatures
    At least with a statement we could have had it notarized and sent to the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
  29. inclination
    an attitude of mind that favors one alternative over others
    People didn’t have any inclination to give up their lives just to try to bring a charge against somebody else.
  30. draft
    engage somebody to enter the army
    My brother, Sylvester, had been drafted into the Army in the early 1940s.
  31. warrant
    a judicial writ commanding police to perform specified acts
    After I was seated in the car, they went back to the driver and asked him if he wanted to swear out a warrant. I was only in custody, not legally arrested, until the warrant was signed.
  32. resigned
    accepting that something unpleasant cannot be changed
    I wasn’t frightened at the jail. I was more resigned than anything else. I don’t recall being real angry, not enough to have an argument. I was just prepared to accept whatever I had to face.
  33. matron
    a wardress in a prison
    A white matron came to escort me to my jail cell, and I asked again if I might use the telephone.
  34. bail
    money forfeited if the accused fails to appear in court
    Mr. Durr called the jail and found out that I’d been arrested under the segregation laws. He also found out what the bail was.
  35. plaintiff
    a person who brings an action in a court of law
    And I had worked on enough cases to know that a ruling could not be made without a plaintiff. So I agreed to be the plaintiff.
Created on Sat Oct 21 16:38:42 EDT 2023 (updated Tue Oct 24 17:13:09 EDT 2023)

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