The first posting (a mere 2 sentences) was on January 1, 2002. Rosa Park’s page has been revised over 500 times with the latest editing being on September 29, 2009. There is a number of revisions every month of the year but it seems like August of 2008 had a great deal of updates.
The original posting was a short paragraph that named Rosa Parks as being “simply unwilling to give up her seat on the bus” in 1955 when the bussing segregation laws were still in effect in Birmingham Alabama. Today’s article goes into much more detail about the incident including information about other African Americans who were unwilling to give up their seat before Rosa Parks (she is often falsely credited for being the first person to take a stand on busses in the South). It also mentions her involvement in the NAACP as well as more information about the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It also goes into the Browder v. Gayle court case that emerged from her refusal to adhere to segregation laws. A detailed account of her own personal life and her involvement in the Civil Rights movement is also included. The Wikipedia article that is present today is virtually 100% different than it was when it was created 7 years ago.
The quality of the article is actually pretty good in comparison to some other articles found on Wikipedia. I have studied a good deal of the Civil Rights era and it was not until my sophomore year in college that I knew about the involvement of individuals such as Claudette Colvin (one of Park’s predecessors to boycott the segregation on busses) as well as her initial involvement in the NAACP. The article is meant to be about Rosa Parks and it provides a reasonable amount of other information about the groups and organizations that she was a part of (NAACP, Civil Rights groups, Montgomery Bus Boycott) as well as key figures that she was involved with (MLK Jr, Emit Till Death, Jo Ann Robinson). It has a number of quotes from interviews with Rosa Parks as well as information about her life up until her death in October of 2005. It also lists a number of awards and monuments that have been given in Rosa Parks’ name. I think that the outline and the information within the article are appropriate for a Wikipedia article and contain information that is relevant and necessary for a brief biography of Rosa Parks.
The discussions of the article mention that this Wikipedia article is often vandalized but it fixed very quickly. The few critiques deal with minute errors, such as quotes that are not cited correctly or a few words off. Also, some comments include critique of the web pages that are mentioned within Park’s Wikipedia page such as how there is little information available about the Nobel Peace Prize that Parks won. However, all together her cite seems to be free from much heated discussion in the past few years. A small amount of vandalism is routinely reported (ex: someone added “Rosa Parks is kewl at some point) but is quickly handled.
I had some difficulty accessing who the main contributers are... can anyone give me the webpage where we do that? I didn't work on the 5th question in class, but I'd like to know how to do it!
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