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. On December 1, 1955, during a typical evening rush hour in Montgomery, Alabama, a 42-year-old woman took a seat on the bus on her way home from the Montgomery Fair department store where she worked as a seamstress. Before she reached her destination, she quietly set off a social revolution when the bus driver instructed her to move back, and she refused. Rosa Parks, an African American, was Her actions were not without consequence. She was jailed for refusing to give up her seat and lost her job for participating in the boycott. After the boycott, Parks and her husband moved to Hampton, Virginia and later permanently settled in Detroit, Michigan. Parks work proved to be invaluable in Detroit’s Civil Rights Movement. At the time of her arrest, she was preparing for a major youth conference. After the arrest of Rosa Parks, black people of Montgomery and sympathizers of other races organized and promoted a boycott of the city bus line that lasted 381 days. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was appointed the spokesperson for the Bus Boycott and taught nonviolence to Rosa Parks invigorated the struggle for racial equality when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. Parks' arrest on December 1, 1955 launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott by 17,000 black citizens. A Supreme Court ruling and declining revenues forced the city to desegregate its buses thirteen months later. Rosa Parks Arrested. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for disorderly conduct for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. Civil Rights leader E. D. Nixon bailed her out of jail, joined by white friends Clifford Durr, an attorney, and his wife, Virginia. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to stand up and give her bus seat to white passengers, which led to her arrest and eventually inspired several movements that led to the fight for civil rights. Parks was a well-educated woman who had learned about the struggles of African-Americans in a segregated country. Parks' arrest on December 1, 1955 launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott by 17,000 black citizens. A Supreme Court ruling and declining revenues forced the city to desegregate its buses thirteen months later. Parks became an instant icon, but her resistance was a natural extension of a lifelong commitment to activism. In 1987 Parks and her husband set up the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute of Self-Development. This organisation gave career training to black youths, as well as education on civil rights history. Rosa Parks died on 24 October 2005, aged 92. Her body was brought to Washington D.C. to le in honour in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. Rosa Parks: Well, the first meeting was not at the Baptist Church. The first meeting we had was at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Dr. Martin Luther King's church where he was pastoring. That was — on Friday evening. INTERVIEWER: I'M TALKING ABOUT THE BIG MEETING AT THE — Rosa Parks: Oh, the big meeting at the Holt Street Baptist Church. Civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the transformational Montgomery Bus Boycott. William Pretzer was five years old when Rosa Parks of Montgomery, Alabama, was arrested. It was December 1, 1955. The 42-year-old seamstress was on a city bus, en route home after a day’s work Dove, Rita. "Heroes and Icons: Rosa Parks" TIME 100, June 14 1999. TIME.com. Hare, Ken. "The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott" Montgomery Advertiser, October 2005. John Safran's Musical Jamboree. Kohl, Herbert. She Would Not Be Moved: how we tell the story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott. New York: The New Press, 2005. ISBN At the news of the arrest, local civil rights leader E.D. Nixon exclaimed, “My God, look what segregation has put in my hands!” Parks was not only above moral reproach (securely married Rosa Parks is best known for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, which sparked a yearlong boycott that was a turning point in the civil rights 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. Rosa Parks was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on February 4, 1913. [1] Her parents were James and Leona McCauley. [1] She was mainly of African ancestry.One of her great-grandfathers was Scots-Irish and went to Charleston, South Carolina as an indentured servant. Claudette Colvin, arrested in March 1955, nine months before Parks' arrest, for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a crowded, segregated Montgomery bus. Cleveland Court Apartments 620–638, home of Rosa and Raymond Parks, and her mother, Leona McCauley, during the Montgomery bus boycott from 1955 to 1956. Rosa Parks, with Martin Luther King Jr. USIA National Archives/Wikimedia As soon as they heard of Parks’ arrest, Women’s Political Committee leader Jo Ann Robinson and veteran trade unionist E
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