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Name at birth: Rosa Louise McCauley
In 1955, Rosa Parks was an African-American living in Montgomery, Alabama -- a city
with laws that strictly segregated blacks and whites. On 1 December 1955, after her day of work as a seamstress at a local
department store, Parks boarded a city bus. When she refused to give up her seat to a white man, the bus driver called police,
and Parks was arrested and fined. The resulting bus boycott by African-Americans, led by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., caused a national sensation. The boycott was a success and led to desegregation in Montgomery and
elsewhere in the United States. Over time, Parks became a national icon of civil rights and African-American pride. Parks
worked as an aide to Michigan Congressman John Conyers, Jr. from 1966 until her retirement in 1988, and she founded the Rosa
and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development in 1987. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton in 1996.
Extra credit: Parks married Raymond Parks, a barber, in 1932, and they remained
married until his death in 1977. They had no children. Raymond Parks was born in 1903... Her hometown of Tuskegee, Alabama
was home to the Tuskegee Institute, which was led for many years by Booker T. Washington. He died in 1915, two years after Parks was born... Parks's bus ride was reminiscent of Homer Plessy's refusal to leave an all-white rail car in Louisiana in 1892..
Rosa Parks joins Dr. King, Harriet Tubman and others in our loop on Black History.
Blog posts mentioning Rosa Parks:
Four Good Links
Her 2005 obituary from the Voice of America
Profile and interview from the Academy of Achievement
The magazine names her one of the century's top people
Her official organization, still working for civil rights
Vital Stats
Birth
4 February 1913
Birthplace
Tuskegee, Alabama
Death
24 October 2005
(age 92)
Best Known As
The civil rights icon who wouldn't give up her bus seat
Name at birth: Rosa Louise McCauley
In 1955, Rosa Parks was an African-American living in Montgomery, Alabama -- a city
with laws that strictly segregated blacks and whites. On 1 December 1955, after her day of work as a seamstress at a local
department store, Parks boarded a city bus. When she refused to give up her seat to a white man, the bus driver called police,
and Parks was arrested and fined. The resulting bus boycott by African-Americans, led by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., caused a national sensation. The boycott was a success and led to desegregation in Montgomery and
elsewhere in the United States. Over time, Parks became a national icon of civil rights and African-American pride. Parks
worked as an aide to Michigan Congressman John Conyers, Jr. from 1966 until her retirement in 1988, and she founded the Rosa
and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development in 1987. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton in 1996.
Extra credit: Parks married Raymond Parks, a barber, in 1932, and they remained
married until his death in 1977. They had no children. Raymond Parks was born in 1903... Her hometown of Tuskegee, Alabama
was home to the Tuskegee Institute, which was led for many years by Booker T. Washington. He died in 1915, two years after Parks was born... Parks's bus ride was reminiscent of Homer Plessy's refusal to leave an all-white rail car in Louisiana in 1892..
Rosa Parks joins Dr. King, Harriet Tubman and others in our loop on Black History.
Blog posts mentioning Rosa Parks:
Four Good Links
Her 2005 obituary from the Voice of America
Profile and interview from the Academy of Achievement
The magazine names her one of the century's top people
Her official organization, still working for civil rights
Vital Stats
Birth
4 February 1913
Birthplace
Tuskegee, Alabama
Death
24 October 2005
(age 92)
Best Known As
The civil rights icon who wouldn't give up her bus seat
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