Rosa Parks occupies an iconic status in the civil rights movement after she refused to vacate a seat on a bus in favor of a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1955, Parks rejected a bus driver's order to leave a row of four seats in the "colored" section once the white section had filled up and move to the back of the bus. Rosa's Activism Begins with the NAACP. Rosa Parks' involvement in civil rights activism began to take shape when she joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1943. As part of the Montgomery chapter, Parks served as both the youth leader and secretary to E.D. Nixon, the president of the chapter. When she inspired the bus boycott, Parks had been the secretary of the local NAACP for twelve years (1943-1956). Parks founded the Montgomery NAACP Youth Council in the early 1940s. Later, as secretary of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, she traveled throughout the state interviewing victims of discrimination and witnesses to lynchings. Parks was a long-time member of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which she joined in 1943. When she inspired the bus boycott, Parks had been the secretary of the local NAACP for twelve years (1943-1956). Parks founded the Montgomery NAACP Youth Council in the early 1940s. Later, as secretary of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, she traveled throughout the state interviewing victims of discrimination and witnesses to lynchings. In 1932 she married Raymond Parks, a barber and member of the NAACP. At that time, Raymond Parks was active in the Scottsboro case. In 1943 Rosa Parks joined the local chapter of the NAACP and was elected secretary. Two years later, she registered to vote, after twice being denied. By 1949 Parks was advisor to the local NAACP Youth Council. Sixty years ago, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old black woman, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama, public bus. On December 1, 1955, Parks, a seamstress and secretary for the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was taking the bus home after a long day of work. The Montgomery NAACP dispatches Parks to investigate the case. 1992: Rosa Parks: My Story, an autobiography for younger readers, is published. August 30, 1994: The Montgomery Bus Boycott. E.D. Nixon, the president of the NAACP’s Montgomery chapter, considered her arrest a “gift” to the movement. Rosa Parks was married, employed, enjoyed a reputation for good character, and, most notably to Nixon, was quiet, mature, and dignified. In 1932, at age 19, Rosa met and married Raymond Parks, a barber and an active member of the NAACP as well as the League of Women Voters. The couple never had children, and their marriage lasted Rosa Parks, the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement" was one of the most important citizens of the 20th century. Mrs. Parks was a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama when, in December of 1955, she refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. The bus driver had her arrested. She was tried and convicted of violating a local ordinance. Her act sparked a citywide boycott of the Rosa Parks (born February 4, 1913, Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S.—died October 24, 2005, Detroit, Michigan) was an American civil rights activist whose refusal to relinquish her seat on a public bus precipitated the 1955–56 Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, which became the spark that ignited the civil rights movement in the United States. Rosa Parks’s legacy has been honored through various awards, including the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Numerous memorials and museums also commemorate her contributions to the civil rights movement. What can we learn from Rosa Parks today? Rosa Parks’s story teaches us the importance of standing up for Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4, 1913, to Leona (née Edwards), a teacher, and James McCauley, a carpenter.In addition to African ancestry, one of Parks's great-grandfathers was Scots-Irish, and one of her great-grandmothers was a part–Native American slave. The NAACP’s long battle against de jure segregation culminated in the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, which overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine. Former NAACP Branch Secretary Rosa Parks’ refusal to yield her seat to a white man sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the modern civil rights movement. Rosa Parks (1913—2005) helped initiate the civil rights movement in the United States when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955. Her actions Who Was Rosa Parks? Rosa Parks, born in February 1913, was a pivotal figure in the American civil rights movement. Her courageous decision to refuse to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in December 1955, sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a significant event in the struggle against racial segregation. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks sparked a revolution by simply refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her quiet defiance became a thunderous call for equality, marking a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement. Why Rosa Parks Matters. Rosa Parks wasn’t just an ordinary person; she was a symbol of resilience and bravery. Rosa Parks' Bus . In 1955, African Americans were still required by a Montgomery, Alabama, city ordinance to sit in the back half of city buses and to yield their seats to white riders if the That spark came on December 1, 1955, when 42-year-old Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus after a long day at her tailoring job at Montgomery Fair department store. Parks was no ordinary citizen; she was the secretary of the Montgomery NAACP and had attended trainings on civil disobedience at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee.
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