Read-Aloud Play/Historical Fiction
Characters
Circle the character you will play.
*Pauline Joseph: a 10-year-old girl
*Eddie Joseph: Pauline’s 8-year-old brother
*Narrators 1 & 2
*Mr. Joseph: Pauline’s father
*Historians 1 & 2
James Blake: a bus driver
Rosa Parks: a 42-year-old seamstress
Policeman
*Mrs. Joseph: Pauline’s mother
*Aunt Abigail: Mrs. Joseph’s younger sister
Papa Gene: Pauline’s grandfather
Reverend Allen: the preacher at the Josephs’ church
*Dr. King: the preacher Martin Luther King Jr.
*Indicates large speaking role
Almost 60 years ago, one courageous woman
sparked a movement that changed history
The Day
By Lauren Tarshis
Illustrations by Melodye Rosales
Mrs. Parks
Was Arrested
1
S T O R Y W O R K S
In 1955, Rosa
Parks (right)
protested
unfair treatment
of AfricanAmericans.
UP
CLOSE
Cause and effect As you read, think
about how the actions of one brave woman
inspired many people to join a fight for
fairness.
LOOK FOR WORD NERD’S 5 TERMS IN BOLD
Scene 1
Thursday evening, December 1, 1955
A bus stop in Montgomery, Alabama
Pauline: Dad! Here’s the bus!
Eddie: I hope there are seats. I’m so tired!
Narrator 1: Pauline, Eddie, and their father get
on a bus about half-filled with riders.
Eddie: There are some seats!
Mr. Joseph: You know we can’t sit in the
front, son. Those seats are for whites only.
Historian 1: In Montgomery, as in most
Southern cities, strict laws kept black people
separate from white people. Even though
most of the passengers on city buses were
black, they were permitted to sit only in the
back—or they had to stand.
Pauline: But there are no seats in the back.
Mr. Joseph: Well, we’ll just have to stand.
Eddie: There’s a seat in the middle.
Mr. Joseph: No use sitting there. You’ll just
have to get up if a white person gets on.
Historian 2: Black people were allowed to sit
in the middle section of a bus, but only if no
white people wanted those seats.
Narrator 2: The bus halts at a crowded stop.
The seats in the front quickly fill up. A
white man is left standing. The driver turns
and yells to four black people seated in the
middle rows.
James Blake: You four! Get out of those seats!
S T O RY W O R K S . S C H O L A S T I C . C O M
2
Narrator 1: At first, nobody gets up.
James: Y’all better make it light on yourselves
and let me have those seats!
Narrator 2: Two women and a man get up.
But one woman, Rosa Parks, refuses to
stand.
James Blake: Are you going to stand up?
Rosa Parks: No.
Blake: Well, I’m going to
have you arrested.
Mrs. Parks: You may
do that.
Narrator 1: The
driver glares at
Mrs. Parks. Then
he gets out of
his seat and goes
outside to call the
police.
Aunt Abigail tries to
Pauline:
convince her sister
Daddy,
that Mrs. Parks was
what’s
right in refusing to
happening?
give up her seat.
Mr. Joseph
(softly): I’m not sure.
Narrator 2: People start
getting off the bus. Soon
the police arrive.
Policeman: Why didn’t
you stand up?
Mrs. Parks: Why do you
all push us around?
Policeman: I don’t know.
But the law is the law,
and you are under arrest.
Narrator 1: Pauline, Eddie, and Mr. Joseph
watch in shock as Rosa Parks is taken away
by the police.
Scene 2
That night at the Joseph household
Narrator 2: The family has just finished eating
a dinner in celebration of Mrs. Joseph’s
birthday.
3
S T O R Y W O R K S
Historian 1: All around Montgomery, people
are talking about Rosa Parks.
Mrs. Joseph: Well, that’s what happens when
you cause trouble.
Aunt Abigail: Mrs. Parks wasn’t causing
trouble. She had paid the same fare as the
white passengers. She had worked a full day.
Why should she have to give up her seat?
Mrs. Joseph: The same reason I give up my
seat to a white person! Because we’re black!
Papa Gene: Abigail, let’s not ruin your sister’s
birthday dinner with this upsetting talk.
Aunt Abigail: Helen, don’t you see that things
have to change? Not just in Montgomery.
Everywhere! Black people should have the
same rights as white people. Don’t you think
Pauline and Eddie should go to the same
good schools as white children? Shouldn’t
they be allowed to swim in the same pools,
drink from the same fountains, eat at the
same lunch counters?
Mrs. Joseph: Please, Abigail! Not tonight with
this talk.
Mr. Joseph: All right. Pauline! Eddie! Don’t
we need to get something from the kitchen?
Narrator 1: Mr. Joseph, Pauline, and Eddie get
up and go into the kitchen.
Pauline: Daddy, why is Mama so upset about
Mrs. Parks?
Mr. Joseph: Your mama is just a bit nervous.
Eddie: Why is she nervous?
Mr. Joseph: There are some white people who
don’t want black people to improve their
situation. They’d probably like us to be
slaves again. Or go away forever. Your mama
is afraid that some of those people could get
angry about what Mrs. Parks did. Now that’s
enough about this for now. We have to sing
to your mama.
Narrator 2: Mr. Joseph, Pauline, and Eddie
return to the dining room. Pauline is
carrying a beautiful chocolate cake lit with
candles. Eddie is holding a box with a big
bow on top.
Everyone (singing): Happy birthday to you,
happy birthday to you . . .
Mrs. Joseph (whispering to Aunt Abigail): I’m
sure everyone is going to just forget all about
Rosa Parks.
Aunt Abigail: Don’t be too sure . . .
Everyone (singing): Happy birthday, dear
Mama! Happy birthday to you!
Scene 3
Sunday, December 4, at church
Narrator 1: Pauline, Eddie, and their parents
are sitting together in a church pew listening
to Reverend Allen’s sermon. Aunt Abigail
and Papa Gene are with them.
Reverend Allen: What Mrs. Parks did a few
days ago was an act of bravery! Let this be
a call to all black people! We must support
Mrs. Parks! Tomorrow, I want all of us to
stay off the buses! I know this will be a
hardship for many of you. But the road to
equality will not be an easy one. Support
the bus boycott!
Everyone: Amen! Amen!
Historian 2: A boycott is a kind of protest.
In a boycott, people stop using a product or
service to show they are unhappy with it.
Narrator 2: The Joseph family, Papa Gene,
and Aunt Abigail walk out of the church.
Aunt Abigail: I knew it! Mrs. Parks started
something! And we’re going to help her
finish it!
Mrs. Joseph: People aren’t going to stay off
the buses! “Amen, amen” will not get you to
work in the morning. The bus will!
Mr. Joseph: We’ll just have to find another
way.
Mrs. Joseph: Francis! This is foolishness!
Mr. Joseph: Listen, Helen, I know you’re
scared. But we’re a part of something
important! We have a chance to help
change things for Pauline and Eddie. I want
to do my part.
Papa Gene: But how will you get to work
tomorrow morning?
Mr. Joseph: I’ll get up at 3 a.m. if I have to.
I’ll put on my most comfortable shoes, and
I’ll walk there.
Mrs. Joseph: You’ll walk seven miles? Are you
really going to be a part of this?
Pauline: I’ll get up with you, Daddy. I’ll make
you pancakes so
you’ll have energy
for the long walk.
Eddie: I’ll squeeze
the orange juice.
Mrs. Joseph: This
is crazy. While
you’re walking, all
your friends are
going to be sitting
on the bus, nice
and comfortable.
Mr. Joseph:
We’ll see.
Scene 4
Monday,
December 5, at
6 a.m.
Narrator 1:
Pauline
and Eddie
are sitting
on the
front stoop.
Eddie: When
does the first bus
go by?
Pauline: Any minute now.
Eddie: Maybe Mama’s
right. Maybe that bus will
be filled with black people. Maybe Dad
shouldn’t have bothered walking.
Pauline: We’ll see. The bus should be by . . .
Eddie: There it is!
Pauline and Eddie (jumping up and shouting
together): The bus is empty! No one took the
S T O RY W O R K S . S C H O L A S T I C . C O M
4
Scene 5
Mr. Joseph: Helen, I’m going with Abigail. If
you choose to sit this out, that’s fine. But I
feel history here. I want my children—our
children—to be a part of it.
Mrs. Joseph: I have a bad feeling, Francis!
What if someone causes trouble—like those
evil fools in their white sheets?
Historian 1: Mrs. Joseph is talking about
members of the Ku Klux Klan, a group of
white men who terrorized blacks and civil
rights leaders throughout the South. They
wore white sheets and hoods to disguise their
identities.
Mr. Joseph: The children
will be safe. We have
goodness on our side.
That evening at the Josephs’ house
Historian 1: All day, buses with no black
passengers rattled through the streets of
Montgomery. The boycott was a success.
Black leaders in Montgomery had to figure
out what to do next. Rosa
Parks and her lawyer
Rosa Parks
went before the judge.
in 1995, 40
years after the
She was found guilty of
boycott
violating Montgomery’s
segregation laws and
The
ordered to pay a
Heroic
14-dollar fine. That’s
about 120 dollars today.
Rosa
Historian 2: But she and
Parks
In 1955, Rosa
her lawyer decided to
Parks was a 42-yearfight back. They decided
old woman working as a
to fight Montgomery’s
seamstress at a big department
bus segregation, even if
store. She was also a member of
they had to go all the
the NAACP, an organization that
way to the United States
was fighting the unfair treatment of
Supreme Court.
African-Americans. Mrs. Parks, like
Aunt Abigail (to her sister):
many others, was fed up with the
Aren’t you all going to
humiliating rules black people had
the meeting tonight?
to follow.
Mrs. Joseph: Why would
Mrs. Parks didn’t intend to
we go?
become a national hero the day
Aunt Abigail: Helen!
she refused to give up her seat. “As
Everyone is meeting at
I sat there, I tried not to think about
the Holt Street Baptist
what might happen,” she wrote in
Church. It’s about the
her autobiography. “I knew that
boycott! We must go!
anything was possible. I could be
Pauline: I want to go,
manhandled or beaten. I could be
Mama!
arrested.” Mainly, Mrs. Parks said,
Mrs. Joseph: No, dear. This
she was tired of “giving in.”
isn’t for children.
5
S T O R Y W O R K S
Scene 6
Holt Street Baptist Church
Historian 2: The church
overflowed with people.
Five thousand gathered for
the meeting.
Narrator 2: Pauline,
Eddie, Aunt Abigail, and
Mr. Joseph get seats in the
church balcony.
Pauline (pointing): Who is
that man?
Aunt Abigail: A new
preacher. His name is
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Mr. Joseph: He is one of
the men in charge of the
boycott.
Eddie: I see Mrs. Parks
down there!
Narrator 1: Dr. King steps
up to the podium.
Dr. King: There comes a
time that people get tired.
We are here this evening
to say to those who have
mistreated us so long that
TROY GLASGOW/AP IMAGES (ROSA PARKS)
bus to work!
Mrs. Joseph: What’s all this commotion?
Pauline: Mama! The bus just went by, and it
was completely empty! No one was on it but
the driver!
Mrs. Joseph: Lord help us.
Narrator 2: Mr. Joseph leads the
children and Aunt Abigail out of the
church.
Pauline: Daddy! Look—it’s
Mama!
Mr. Joseph: Helen! I thought
you didn’t want to be here!
Mrs. Joseph: Dr. King speaks
the truth. It’s time we stand up for
ourselves.
Mr. Joseph: You heard Dr. King?
Mrs. Joseph: Every word.
Aunt Abigail: He says we shouldn’t
ride the buses until the bus companies
change their rules.
Pauline: That could be a long time.
Mrs. Joseph: If that’s what Dr.
King wants us to do, that’s what
we’ll do.
Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. inspires the
crowd at the Holt Street
Baptist Church.
we are tired—tired of
being segregated and
humiliated, tired of being
kicked about.
Everyone: Amen!
Historian 1: Dr. King’s speech that night
began his life as the leader of the civil rights
movement and as an American hero.
Dr. King: For many years we have shown
amazing patience. We have sometimes given
our white brothers the feeling that we liked
the way we were being treated. But we have
come here tonight to be saved from that
patience . . .
Historian 2: His words inspired the crowd.
They would no longer accept segregation.
They would fight—peacefully—for equality.
Epilogue
Historian 1: The Montgomery
bus boycott lasted a full year.
Many black people lost their jobs
or were threatened with violence as
they walked to work. But still the buses
rattled through the streets nearly empty.
Historian 2: On November 13, 1956,
the United States Supreme Court
ruled that Montgomery’s bus rules were
unconstitutional. Dr. King and the black
people of Montgomery—families like the
Josephs—had won this fight.
Historian 1: On December 21, 1956, Rosa
Parks got on a Montgomery city bus.
Mrs. Parks: I sat in the front seat.
WRITE TO WIN
Rosa Parks inspired many people to join the fight to end segregation on buses in Montgomery.
What did different people in this play do to help make this fight successful? Answer in a
paragraph, using at least three examples.
S T O RY W O R K S . S C H O L A S T I C . C O M
6