Black History Month

In 1963, more than 200,000 people came to Washington, America's capital, to hear one man speak. His name was Dr. Martin Luther King.

And the words he said that day are some of the most famous in history.

He said he had a dream that life for his children could be different from how it had been for him. But what did he mean?

Dr. King lived in a part of America that had racist laws that treated black people unfairly.

Racists believe people with certain skin colours, or who are from a particular race, are better than others so they treat them differently. So black and white people were kept apart, eating in different restaurants, travelling in different parts of buses and it was hard for black people to vote against the people who made these laws.

He had many enemies and was sent to prison.

After his release, he went to Washington.

There, in front of a huge crowd and with many more people tuned to their TV and Radio, he told of his dream that his children would one day live in a nation where they wouldn't be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.

People everywhere, began to share Dr. King's dream and knew that the racist laws had to change. Not everyone agreed though.

In 1968, Dr. King was shot dead for his beliefs.

But the changes he started continued after he died and so he's remembered. Every year Americans celebrate his life with a public holiday called Martin Luther King Day. Remembering a strong man and brilliant speaker.

We use buses every day to go to school or into town. It's not unusual, but this story is about a bus journey that changed millions of lives.

Let's go to America, in 1955, to Montgomery in the southern state of Alabama. There, when a woman called Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, a bus journey became very important.

Rosa's refusal was a protest about racism against black people. Racism is when someone thinks you're not as good as them because the colour of your skin or your race is different to theirs, so they treat you differently.

At that time, southern states in America had something called segregation. This meant people of different skin colours had different schools, restaurants—even toilets. Segregation happened on buses too.

One day, Rosa was in a seat for black people, but white people's seats were full. The bus driver wanted Rosa to give her seat to a white person, but Rosa said no!

Rosa was a member of a civil rights group which fought for black and white people to be treated the same. She was arrested and taken to jail for a few hours.

Rosa didn't fight alone. People organised a bus boycott, which meant they stopped using buses for a year. They walked instead. This bus company lost a lot of money.

The boycott was a peaceful stand against racism. Judges eventually said having separate black and white parts of buses was not allowed.

"Hello, friends of freedom. It's a wonderful day and let us be thankful we have reached this point and we will go farther from now to greater things. Thank you!"

Today, Rosa Parks is remembered as an ordinary woman who took a stand to help black people in America be treated fairly—to be treated the same as whites.