caption dead death_date death_place birth_name image_width birth_place home_town nationality birth_date known_for spouse signature image article_title name occupation
rosa , & nbsp ; jr. in the background parks in 1955 , with martin luther king dead 24 october 2005 detroit , michigan , u.s. rosa louise mccauley 230px tuskegee , alabama , u.s. tuskegee , alabama american 4 february 1913 montgomery bus boycott raymond parks -lrb- 1932 -- 1977 -rrb- rosa parks signature.svg rosaparks.jpg rosa parks
 rosa parks civil rights activist
rosa parks

rosa louise mccauley parks -lrb- february 4 , 1913 -- october 24 , 2005 -rrb- was an african-american civil rights activist , whom the united states congress called `` the first lady of civil rights '' and `` the mother of the freedom movement '' .
her birthday , february 4 , and the day she was arrested , december 1 , have both become rosa parks day , commemorated in both california and ohio .
on december 1 , 1955 , in montgomery , alabama , parks refused to obey bus driver james f. blake 's order to give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger , after the white section was filled .
parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation .
others had taken similar steps , including bayard rustin in 1942 , irene morgan in 1946 , sarah louise keys in 1952 , and the members of the ultimately successful `` browder v. gayle '' lawsuit -lrb- claudette colvin , aurelia browder , susie mcdonald , and mary louise smith -rrb- who were arrested in montgomery for not giving up their bus seats months before parks .
naacp organizers believed that parks was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her arrest for civil disobedience in violating alabama segregation laws , although eventually her case became bogged down in the state courts while the `` browder v. gayle '' case succeeded .
parks ' act of defiance and the montgomery bus boycott became important symbols of the modern civil rights movement .
she became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation .
she organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders , including edgar nixon , president of the local chapter of the naacp ; and martin luther king , jr. , a new minister in town who gained national prominence in the civil rights movement .
at the time , parks was secretary of the montgomery chapter of the naacp .
she had recently attended the highlander folk school , a tennessee center for training activists for workers ' rights and racial equality .
she acted as a private citizen `` tired of giving in '' .
although widely honored in later years , she also suffered for her act ; she was fired from her job as a seamstress in a local department store , and received death threats for years afterwards .
shortly after the boycott , she moved to detroit , where she briefly found similar work .
from 1965 to 1988 she served as secretary and receptionist to john conyers , an african-american u.s. representative .
she was also active in the black power movement and the support of political prisoners in the us .
after retirement , parks wrote her autobiography and lived a largely private life in detroit .
in her final years , she suffered from dementia .
parks received national recognition , including the naacp 's 1979 spingarn medal , the presidential medal of freedom , the congressional gold medal , and a posthumous statue in the united states capitol 's national statuary hall .
upon her death in 2005 , she was the first woman and second non-u.s. government official to lie in honor at the capitol rotunda .
