Students will analyze Rosa Parks' evolving activism during the Black Freedom Movement using primary source sets created from the Library of Congress exhibit "Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words.” Students will use the evolving hypothesis strategy to answer the focus question. 02/03/2025 February 3, 2025. She stood up for her rights by staying seated. In the 1950s, Rosa Parks gave the US Civil Rights Movement a huge boost, and inspired Martin Luther King Jr. When Rosa passed away on October 24, 2005, at the age of 92, people around the world mourned her loss. Her body lay in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, an honor reserved for only a few great Americans. Why Rosa Parks Matters. Rosa Parks’ story is a reminder that courage doesn’t always come with loud speeches or grand gestures. The Rosa Parks topic page, available through Gale In Context: U.S. History, is an engaging online resource portal featuring primary sources, images, videos, audio files, and more. It gives educators a robust repertoire of grade-spanning tools to introduce students to Parks’s life and legacy while meeting each learner at their developmental level. Rosa Parks smiles during a ceremony where she received the Congressional Medal of Freedom in Detroit on Nov. 28, 1999. Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the 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 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 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. April 14, 2005: Parks and the hip-hop group Outkast reach an out-of-court settlement regarding their 1998 song "Rosa Parks." October 24, 2005: Parks dies at the age of 92 Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. She grew up in a highly segregated and oppressive environment, where racial discrimination was a daily reality. Despite the challenges she faced, Rosa's parents instilled in her a strong sense of self-worth and dignity. “Rosa Parks turned to me sweetly and asked, 'Now, Bryan, tell me who you are and what you're doing.' I looked at Ms. Carr to see if I had permission to speak, and she smiled and nodded at me. I then gave Ms. Parks my rap. 'Yes, ma'am. Well, I have a law project called the Equal Justice Initiative, and we're trying to help people on death row. Rosa Parks did the same. 42 years old, she was a professional, an officer in the NAACP and at last African-American Montgomery had its symbol. Archival: I didn’t feel that I was being treated as a human being. I refused to give up this seat. I said, no. I wouldn’t give it up. Claudette Colvin: I knew why they chose Rosa. They thought I While living in Cleveland Court, Rosa Parks enjoyed working with young people and was very close friends with Rev. Robert and Jeannie Gratz. She attended church, at St. Paul A.M.E. Church where she served as a deaconess. Following the bus boycott, Rosa Parks and her family moved to Detroit, MI in 1957. Born on Feb. 4, 1913, today would have been Rosa Parks’ 100th birthday. On Dec. 1, 1955, Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her act of On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of going to the back of the bus, which was designated for African Americans, she sat in the front. 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. So, one of the things Montgomery’s Black community has learned from that is that the state may try to do the same thing with Rosa Parks’s case, because now we’re post-Brown, so there is much 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. It’s around here where Ilitch comes into the picture. According to Detroit historian Jamon Jordan (you can watch him in action on our tour of significant sites impacted by the 1967 riots, as part of BLAC's #1967At50 project), Conyers, former mayor Coleman Young, then-mayor Dennis Archer and late radio legend Martha Jean “The Queen” Steinberg pooled some funds to cover Parks’ initial It is time to move Rosa Parks beyond the elementary school curriculum. Drawn from The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks and various archival sources including Rosa Parks’ newly-opened papers at the Library of Congress, this project traces the expanse of Rosa Parks’ political work and commitments and the breadth of the Black struggle for justice across the 20th century.
Articles and news, personal stories, interviews with experts.
Photos from events, contest for the best costume, videos from master classes.