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. 

## Early years 
Rosa Parks was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on February 4, 1913. Her parents were James and Leona McCauley.

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.

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 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.

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. 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. 

## *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. Black citizens of Montgomery could ride the buses and sit where they chose. 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".

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  people to stand in the fire for the cause of the human dignity.*  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. 

## Notes and facts 
## References 
## 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