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. Rosa received many honors in her lifetime, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. In 1999, she was also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. When Rosa passed away on October 24, 2005, at the age of 92, people around the world mourned her loss. Rosa Parks has received the following awards: Springarn Medal (1979); Golden Plate Award; Presidential Medal of Freedom (1996); the Congressional Gold Medal (1999); NAACP Image Award for outstanding supporting actress in drama series (2000) Rosa Parks will always be remembered for her role in the civil rights movement. On 24 October 2005 Rosa Rosa Parks gets fingerprinted after her arrest in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955. The movie won the 2003 NAACP Image Award, Christopher Award, and Black Reel Award. Throughout Rosa's life, she had won many awards and medals. The NAACP awarded Rosa with the Spingarn Medal in 1979. This was their highest honor. One year later she had been given the Martin Luther King Jr Award. In September of 1992, Rosa Parks had the honor of winning the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience award. Her birthday, February 4, and the day she was arrested, December 1, have both become Rosa Parks Day, commemorated in the U.S. states of California and Ohio. On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake's order that she give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger, after the white On September 15, 1996, President Clinton awarded Rosa Parks the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor given by the U.S. executive branch. Rosa was unable to attend the White House ceremony on September 9 in which ten other distinguished Americans were recognized, thus she received her medal alone in an Oval Office ceremony. In 2000, Troy University created the Rosa Parks Museum, located at the site of her arrest in downtown Montgomery, Alabama. In 2001, the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, consecrated Rosa Parks Circle, a 3.5-acre park designed by Maya Lin, an artist and architect best known for designing the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. In addition, Rosa received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999. The Rosa Parks Library and Museum opened in Montgomery in 2000. The television movie, The Rosa Parks Story aired on CBS in 2002. After her death, in 2005, her body lay in honor at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. Rosa was the first woman given that distinction. A statue of Rosa Parks was 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 While Rosa Parks may have won many smaller awards, there are five major awards she won between 1979 and 2000. In 1979, she won the Spingarn Medal 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 Yes, Rosa Parks received several awards over her lifetime. In 1979, Rosa Parks was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. In 1980, she received Rosa Parks (center, in dark coat and hat) rides a bus at the end of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Montgomery, Alabama, Dec. 26, 1956. Don Cravens/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images. Most of us know Rosa Parks as the African American woman who quietly, but firmly, refused to give up her bus seat to a white person Dec. 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama. That small act of Rosa Parks, a name that resonates with courage and defiance, ushered in a new era of civil rights in the United States. Her singular act of refusing to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger on December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, ignited a movement that would change the course of American history. Showcases rarely seen materials that offer an intimate view of Rosa Parks and documents her life and activism—creating a rich opportunity for viewers to discover new dimensions to their understanding of this seminal figure. The materials are drawn extensively from the Rosa Parks Collection, a gift to the Library of Congress from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. Because of her important role in the Civil Rights Movement, a lot of Rosa Parks information has been published across a myriad of media. Rosa was born in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1913. Some of her earliest memories were of KKK marches down her street and the acts of arson they committed in African American neighborhoods. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama to a white man and was arrested. Her subsequent conviction four days later for disorderly conduct prompted the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1913. She was an activist against the Jim Crow laws in the American South, which imposed racial segregation and effectively disenfranchised (took away the right to vote from) many African Americans and poor whites.
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