Rosa Parks

**Rosa Louise McCauley Parks** (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an African-American civil rights activist. She was called "the mother of the Modern-Day American civil rights movement" and "the mother of the freedom movement".

On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks was told to give up her seat on the bus for a white man. She refused to move, and was arrested for breaking segregation laws. Parks was a member of the local chapter of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and had prepared for this act of civil disobedience.

This was a crucial moment in the Civil Rights Movement.  Parks' arrest led to the influential Montgomery bus boycott, which lasted 381 days. The boycott was successful: the law changed to allow black people to sit anywhere they wanted on the bus.

Parks' arrest was an important symbol in the campaign against racial segregation. It inspired many African-American people to stand up and fight against racism and discrimination. Her actions sparked a fire that helped lead to great changes.

## Early years

Rosa Parks was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on February 4, 1913. Her parents were James and Leona McCauley. She was mainly of African ancestry. One of her great-grandfathers was Scots-Irish and went to Charleston, South Carolina as an indentured servant.

Her father left home to find work when Rosa was 2 years old. Her mother taught school in another town. Rosa and her brother Sylvester were brought up by their grandparents.

### Education

Rosa started school in 1919 when she was 6 years old.  At that time, schools were segregated.  There were black schools and white schools.  Later, Parks remembered how buses took white students to their school, but black students had to walk to theirs:
> _I'd see the bus pass every day... But to me, that was a way of life; we had no choice but to accept what was the custom. The bus was among the first ways I realized there was a black world and a white world._

In 1924 she went to the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls in Montgomery, Alabama. After 5 years, she left school and went to work in a shirt factory. She also took care of her grandmother.

### Civil disobedience

On December 1, 1955, Parks got onto a city bus to go home after work. At that time in the American South, segregation was the law, so the bus had different seating sections for white people and black people. The black seating was in the back of the bus, but even there, black passengers were required to give up their seats for white passengers if there were not enough "white" seats.

Parks was seated in the black section, but when white passengers needed seats, the bus driver ordered her and three other black people to give up their seats so the white people could sit down. The other three moved to the back of the bus, but Parks slid over to the window. She refused to move and said she was following the law by sitting in the right section.

Parks was breaking Alabama's bus laws, which required segregation, and she knew she could be arrested. However, she later said, "I thought of Emmett Till and I just couldn't go back."  (Till was a black 14-year-old who was brutally lynched in Mississippi about three months earlier after whistling at a white woman.)

The driver stopped the bus and called the police. Parks was arrested for violating Alabama's bus laws.

Her mother called upon Edgar Nixon to bail her out. Nixon was the president of the local NAACP chapter. Nixon knew the danger Parks was in and immediately arranged her bail.

### Bus boycott

_See the main article: Montgomery bus boycott_

The local NAACP had been looking for a test case to challenge the bus segregation laws. They thought Parks was a good fit. She was a respected, well-spoken working woman, and the group decided her case would be a good way to challenge the law. They decided to start a boycott of all the buses in Montgomery on December 5 - the same day Parks had to appear in court.

Throughout the black community, word spread about the boycott plans. Black ministers told their congregations to support the boycott. On December 5, the streets of Montgomery were filled with black people walking to work. Black children walked to school.

That same morning, all Montgomery buses were assigned two motorcycle policemen to guard against any black gangs intimidating riders. There were none. The black community simply cooperated with the boycott. White passengers fearing trouble stayed off the buses as well, so they remained empty all day.

Parks was charged with disorderly conduct as well as violating the bus laws. Her trial was quick - only about 30 minutes long. The court found her guilty of all charges and fined her $14.

## _Browder v. Gayle_

Parks appealed her conviction. Her attorney, Fred Gray, and others in the NAACP brought an appeal named _Browder v. Gayle_. The appeals court ruled on June 19, 1956 in favor of the black citizens of Montgomery. The city appealed the decision, but September 13, 1956, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the original court ruling.

The bus boycott ended. It had lasted 381 days. Black citizens of Montgomery could ride the buses and sit where they chose.  Rosa Parks rode the bus again on December 21, 1956. This time it was an integrated bus. Ironically, she had the same bus driver who had her arrested the year before. In an interview, Parks said "He didn't react [pause] and neither did I".

## After the boycott

After Parks' conviction, the boycott continued. It lasted 381 days, until the city agreed to end segregation on public buses.

Parks was a heroine of the black community. However, after the boycott, she experienced many difficulties. She lost her job at a department store. Her husband was forced to quit his job.

In 1957, Parks and her husband left Montgomery for Hampton, Virginia to find work. In Hampton, Parks found a job as a hostess in an inn at Hampton Institute, a historically black college. Later, Parks and her husband moved to Detroit, Michigan.

### Continued activism

Parks continued her activism.  For years, she worked for United States Congressman John Conyers.  After that, she fought apartheid in South Africa.  She also opened a center in Detroit that gave advice to black youth about careers and job opportunities.

In 1999, Time Magazine named Parks one of the 20 most influential people of the 20th century.

### Congressional Gold Medal

In 1999, President Bill Clinton awarded Parks a Congressional Gold Medal.  This is the United States' highest honor (its most important award) for civilians.  When he gave her the award, President Clinton said:
> _We must never ever, when this ceremony is over, forget about the power of ordinary people to stand in the fire for the cause of the human dignity._

### Death

Parks died from dementia on October 24, 2005 at her home in Detroit. On October 30, her casket lay in state in the United States Capitol.  This is a great honor for people in the United States. She was buried at Woodland Cemetery, in Detroit, Michigan.

## Other websites

- Academy of Achievement Profile
- Rosa Parks Library and Museum  at Troy University
- The Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development
- _Civil Rights Icon Rosa Parks Dies_ - National Public Radio
- Complete audio/video and newspaper archive of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
- Rose Parks Biography
- Rosa Parks Quotes
- Rosa Parks interview and photographs

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Rosa Parks
- **image**: Rosa Parks 1997.jpg
- **birth name**: Rosa Louise McCauley
- **birth place**: Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S.
- **death place**: Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
- **resting place**: Woodlawn Cemetery (Detroit), Woodlawn Cemetery, Detroit
- **occupation**: Civil rights activist
- **known for**: Montgomery bus boycott
- **movement**: Civil Rights Movement
- **spouse**: Raymond Parks (activist), Raymond Parks
(m. 1932; died 1977)
- **signature**: Rosa Parks Signature.svg