3315 Hayneville Rd, Montgomery, AL 36108, United States
Rosa Parks studied at the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls which later became the Booker Taliaferro Washington Junior High School.
College/University
Career
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1955
Montgomery, Alabama, United States
American civil rights activist, Rosa Parks, being fingerprinted after her refusal to move to the back of a bus to accommodate a white passenger touched off the bus boycott, Montgomery, Alabama, 1955.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1955
515 Malcolm X Blvd, New York, NY 10037, United States
Portrait of Rosa Parks, who organized the boycott of buses in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 in New York, Schomburg Center.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1955
Montgomery, Alabama, United States
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, American Civil Rights activist. Booking photo taken at the time of her arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white passenger on 1 December 1955.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1955
Montgomery, Alabama, United States
Rosa Parks speaks with an interviewer as she arrives at court with Reverend Edward Nixon and 91 other African Americans on trial for violation of a 1921 anti-boycott law. They were part of a city-wide boycott of buses by African Americans ignited by Rosa Parks' arrest for violation of the "Jim Crow" Law forbidding African Americans from sitting with whites at the front of busses.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1956
Montgomery, Alabama, United States
American Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks poses as she works as a seamstress, shortly after the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott, Montgomery, Alabama, February 1956. Photo by Don Cravens.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1956
Montgomery, Alabama, United States
American Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks (center, in dark coat and hat) rides a bus at the end of the Montgomery bus boycott, Montgomery, Alabama, December 26, 1956. Photo by Don Cravens.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1956
Montgomery, Alabama, United States
American Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks (center, in dark coat and hat) waits to board a bus at the end of the Montgomery bus boycott, Montgomery, Alabama, December 26, 1956. Photo by Don Cravens.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1956
Montgomery, Alabama, United States
Rosa Parks riding on a newly integrated bus following Supreme Court ruling ending the successful 381-day boycott of segregated buses. Boycott began when Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white person. Photo by Don Cravens.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1956
Montgomery, Alabama, United States
Rosa Parks sits in the front of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, after the Supreme Court ruled segregation illegal on the city bus system on December 21st, 1956. Man sitting behind Parks is Nicholas C. Chriss, a reporter for United Press International out of Atlanta.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1956
Montgomery, Alabama, United States
Rosa Parks, 43, is shown smiling as she walks on the street, December 21. A Supreme Court ruling, which banned segregation on the city's public transit vehicles, took effect. Mrs. Parks' arrest on December 1st, 1955, for sitting in a bus forward of white passengers, touched off the boycott of Montgomery Afro-Americans against the city's bus lines.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1957
United States
Rosa Parks, civil rights leader who started the Alabama Bus Boycott, with Reverend Thomas Kilgore Jr.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1958
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Louis Mason Jr. of NAACP presenting a plaque to KDKA program director Edward Young, with Rosa Parks standing between them, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, April 1958.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1956
Montgomery, Alabama, United States
Rosa Parks, 43, is shown smiling as she walks on the street, December 21. A Supreme Court ruling, which banned segregation on the city's public transit vehicles, took effect. Mrs. Parks' arrest on December 1st, 1955, for sitting in a bus forward of white passengers, touched off the boycott of Montgomery Afro-Americans against the city's bus lines.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1964
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Civil rights activist Fred Shuttlesworth, second from left, receives a Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) citation from Rosa Parks as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ralph Abernathy look on, Atlanta, Georgia, 1964.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1965
United States
Jesse Jackson Sr and civil rights icon Rosa Parks raise their hands triumphantly during a speech, 1965.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1965
Alabama, United States
Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks (1913 - 2005) receives a round of applause from fellow civil rights leaders and supporters as she walks across the stage at a gathering in front of Montgomery's State Capital, at the end of the Selma to Montgomery march, late March 1965. Ralph Bunche is visible immediately to Rosa Park's left. Photo by Robert Abbott Sengstacke.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1965
600 Dexter Ave, Montgomery, AL 36130, United States
Rosa Parks at the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights Marches. The Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights Marches occurred in 1965 and were marked by violent attacks on the marchers by state and local police. Photo by Steve Schapiro.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1965
600 Dexter Ave, Montgomery, AL 36130, United States
Surrounded by others with raised hands, American Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks speaks in front of the Montgomery State Capitol building at the conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March, Montgomery, Alabama, March 25, 1965. Photo by Steve Schapiro.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1965
600 Dexter Ave, Montgomery, AL 36130, United States
Surrounded by others with raised hands, American Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks speaks in front of the Montgomery State Capitol building at the conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March, Montgomery, Alabama, March 25, 1965. Photo by Steve Schapiro.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1986
515 Malcolm X Blvd, New York, NY 10037, United States
Civil rights leader Rosa Parks speaks at the opening of an exhibit of memorabilia from the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, January 13, 1986. Photo by Robert Abbott Sengstacke.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1988
415 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217, United States
Civil rights leader Rosa Parks smiles while people gathered around her applaud at a ceremony held in her honor at the House of the Lord Church, Brooklyn, New York. Photo by Angel Franco.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1989
United States
Rosa Parks and the portrait of hers.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1989
United States
Unidentified, television personality Oprah Winfrey and civil rights veteran Rosa Parks.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1993
United States
Rosa Parks during Essence Awards at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York, United States. Photo by Ron Galella.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1996
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
Rosa Parks and Hillary Clinton at the White House in Washington D.C. Photo by Monica Morgan.
Gallery of Rosa Parks
1997
United States
Actor Morgan Freeman and civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks at party for Freeman's film Amistad. Photo by Dave Allocca.
Achievements
Membership
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Rosa Parks was an active member of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and she served as its secretary until 1957. She continued her activities in the organization after she moved from Montgomery.
Awards
Ellis Island Medal of Honor
1986
New York City, New York, United States
Joe DiMaggio, Victor Borge, Anita Bryant, Muhammad Ali, Rosa Parks, and Donald Trump pose for a photograph after receiving the Ellis Island Medal of Honor October 27, 1986, in New York City. Photo by Yvonne Hemsey.
Presidential Medal of Freedom
1996
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States
Rosa Parks at the White House with President Bill Clinton after receiving the 1996 Presidential Medal of Freedom, Washington, D.C.
Congressional Gold Medal
1999
Washington D.C., United States
Rosa Parks showing off her Congressional Gold Medal of Honor with United States Vice President Gore prior to a benefit tribute concert in her honor.
Governor's Medal of Honor for Extraordinary Courage
2000
Alabama, United States
Rosa Parks receives Governor's Medal of Honor for Extraordinary Courage from Governor Don Siegelman in 2000.
American civil rights activist, Rosa Parks, being fingerprinted after her refusal to move to the back of a bus to accommodate a white passenger touched off the bus boycott, Montgomery, Alabama, 1955.
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, American Civil Rights activist. Booking photo taken at the time of her arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white passenger on 1 December 1955.
Rosa Parks speaks with an interviewer as she arrives at court with Reverend Edward Nixon and 91 other African Americans on trial for violation of a 1921 anti-boycott law. They were part of a city-wide boycott of buses by African Americans ignited by Rosa Parks' arrest for violation of the "Jim Crow" Law forbidding African Americans from sitting with whites at the front of busses.
American Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks poses as she works as a seamstress, shortly after the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott, Montgomery, Alabama, February 1956. Photo by Don Cravens.
American Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks (center, in dark coat and hat) rides a bus at the end of the Montgomery bus boycott, Montgomery, Alabama, December 26, 1956. Photo by Don Cravens.
American Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks (center, in dark coat and hat) waits to board a bus at the end of the Montgomery bus boycott, Montgomery, Alabama, December 26, 1956. Photo by Don Cravens.
Rosa Parks riding on a newly integrated bus following Supreme Court ruling ending the successful 381-day boycott of segregated buses. Boycott began when Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white person. Photo by Don Cravens.
Rosa Parks sits in the front of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, after the Supreme Court ruled segregation illegal on the city bus system on December 21st, 1956. Man sitting behind Parks is Nicholas C. Chriss, a reporter for United Press International out of Atlanta.
Rosa Parks, 43, is shown smiling as she walks on the street, December 21. A Supreme Court ruling, which banned segregation on the city's public transit vehicles, took effect. Mrs. Parks' arrest on December 1st, 1955, for sitting in a bus forward of white passengers, touched off the boycott of Montgomery Afro-Americans against the city's bus lines.
Louis Mason Jr. of NAACP presenting a plaque to KDKA program director Edward Young, with Rosa Parks standing between them, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, April 1958.
Civil rights activist Fred Shuttlesworth, second from left, receives a Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) citation from Rosa Parks as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ralph Abernathy look on, Atlanta, Georgia, 1964.
Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks (1913 - 2005) receives a round of applause from fellow civil rights leaders and supporters as she walks across the stage at a gathering in front of Montgomery's State Capital, at the end of the Selma to Montgomery march, late March 1965. Ralph Bunche is visible immediately to Rosa Park's left. Photo by Robert Abbott Sengstacke.
600 Dexter Ave, Montgomery, AL 36130, United States
Rosa Parks at the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights Marches. The Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights Marches occurred in 1965 and were marked by violent attacks on the marchers by state and local police. Photo by Steve Schapiro.
600 Dexter Ave, Montgomery, AL 36130, United States
Surrounded by others with raised hands, American Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks speaks in front of the Montgomery State Capitol building at the conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March, Montgomery, Alabama, March 25, 1965. Photo by Steve Schapiro.
600 Dexter Ave, Montgomery, AL 36130, United States
Surrounded by others with raised hands, American Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks speaks in front of the Montgomery State Capitol building at the conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March, Montgomery, Alabama, March 25, 1965. Photo by Steve Schapiro.
Joe DiMaggio, Victor Borge, Anita Bryant, Muhammad Ali, Rosa Parks, and Donald Trump pose for a photograph after receiving the Ellis Island Medal of Honor October 27, 1986, in New York City. Photo by Yvonne Hemsey.
515 Malcolm X Blvd, New York, NY 10037, United States
Civil rights leader Rosa Parks speaks at the opening of an exhibit of memorabilia from the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, January 13, 1986. Photo by Robert Abbott Sengstacke.
415 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217, United States
Civil rights leader Rosa Parks smiles while people gathered around her applaud at a ceremony held in her honor at the House of the Lord Church, Brooklyn, New York. Photo by Angel Franco.
Rosa Parks was an active member of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and she served as its secretary until 1957. She continued her activities in the organization after she moved from Montgomery.
(Rosa Parks is best known for the day she refused to give ...)
Rosa Parks is best known for the day she refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus, sparking the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott. Yet there is much more to her story than this one act of defiance. In this straightforward, compelling autobiography, Rosa Parks talks candidly about the civil rights movement and her active role in it. Her dedication is inspiring; her story is unforgettable.
(Presents correspondence between Rosa Parks and various ch...)
Presents correspondence between Rosa Parks and various children in which the Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement answers questions and encourages young people to reach their highest potential.
(When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a...)
When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man on December 1, 1955, she made history. Her brave act sparked the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott and brought the civil rights movement to national attention. In simple, lively language, Rosa Parks describes her life from childhood to the present and recounts the events that shook the nation. Her story is powerful, inspiring and unforgettable.
Rosa Parks was an African-American civil rights activist. Her refusal to relinquish her seat on a public bus to a white man precipitated the 1955-1956 Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, which is recognized as the spark that ignited the United States civil rights movement.
Background
Ethnicity:
In addition to African ancestry, Rosa Parks' had Scots-Irish descend by one of he great-grandfathers and Native American by one of her slave great-grandmothers.
Rosa Louise Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. She was the daughter of Leona Edwards, a teacher, and James McCauley, a carpenter. Her parents separated when Parks was two. Parks’ mother moved the family to Pine Level, Alabama, to live with her parents, Rose and Sylvester Edwards. Both of Parks' grandparents were formerly enslaved and strong advocates for racial equality; the family lived on the Edwards' farm, where Parks and her younger brother Sylvester would spend their youth.
Parks' childhood brought her early experiences with racial discrimination and activism for racial equality. In one experience, Parks' grandfather stood in front of their house with a shotgun while Ku Klux Klan members marched down the street.
Education
Throughout Parks' education, she attended segregated schools. Taught to read by her mother at a young age, Parks attended a segregated, one-room school in Pine Level, Alabama, that often lacked adequate school supplies such as desks. African American students were forced to walk to the first through sixth-grade schoolhouse, while the city of Pine Level provided bus transportation as well as a new school building for white students.
In 1924 Parks enrolled at the private Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, known as "Miss White's school," after its principal and co-founder, Alice White. All the students were African-Americans, and all the teachers were white women from the North. At the end of the eights grade, the school closed. As a teenager Parks attended Booker Taliaferro Washington Junior High School. In 1929, while in the 11th grade and attending a laboratory school for secondary education led by the Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes, Parks left school to attend to both her sick grandmother and mother back in Pine Level.
Parks didn't return to her studies. Instead, she got a job at a shirt factory in Montgomery. After marrying in 1932, she earned her high school degree in 1933 with her husband's support. A number of universities awarded her honorary degrees.
After graduating from high school with her husband's support, Rosa Parks became actively involved in civil rights issues by joining the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in 1943, serving as the chapter's youth leader as well as secretary to NAACP President Edgar Daniel Nixon - a post she held until 1957.
In 1955 Parks worked as a seamstress at the Montgomery Fair department store. Riding home from work on the Cleveland Avenue bus line on December 1, 1955, she refused to give up her place in the front row of the "colored section" to a white man who could find no seat in the section reserved for whites and was arrested. Parks was driven to the police station, booked, fingerprinted, and jailed. She was also photographed as she was being fingerprinted, a snapshot that has since found its way into history textbooks. She was granted one telephone call, and she used it to contact Edgar Daniel Nixon, a prominent member of Montgomery's NAACP chapter. Nixon called a liberal white lawyer, Clifford Durr, who agreed to represent Parks. After consulting with the attorney, her husband, and her mother, Rosa Parks agreed to undertake a court challenge of the segregationist law that had led to her arrest.
Word of Parks's arrest spread quickly through Montgomery's black community, and several influential black leaders decided the time was ripe to try a boycott of the public transportation system. One of these leaders, the reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., used the mimeograph machine at his Baptist church to make 7, 000 copies of a leaflet advertising the boycott. The message of the leaflet was plain: "Don't ride the bus to work, to town, to school, or any place Monday, December 5 … If you work, take a cab, or share a ride, or walk." On Tuesday, December 6th, Parks was found guilty of failure to comply with a city ordinance and fined $14. She and her attorney appealed the ruling while the boycott wore on. On November 13, 1956, the United States Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision declaring Montgomery’s segregated seating unconstitutional, and the court order was served on December 20; the boycott ended the following day. For her role in igniting the successful campaign, which brought King to national prominence, Parks became known as the "mother of the civil rights movement."
Thrust into the limelight, Parks suddenly found her life opened to the public. Parks and her family received numerous threats and almost constant telephone harassment. In 1957 Rosa and Raymond Parks (and Rosa's mother) moved north to Detroit, Michigan. The first years in Detroit were very hard, but in 1965 she was hired to work in the local office of a freshman Democratic congressman John Conyers, Jr. She remained active in the NAACP, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference established the annual Rosa Parks Freedom Award in her honor. In 1987, she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, to provide scholarships and guidance for young blacks. In 1988 Parks retired from her job with Conyers.
In 1992, Parks published a children's book entitled Rosa Parks: My Story. Five years later, she and author Jim Haskins, reissued the book for a younger audience. Full of colorful illustrations and age-appropriate definitions of concepts such as segregation and racism, the newly titled book, I Am Rosa Parks, allowed children as young as four to grasp the importance of the civil rights movement.
Rosa Parks was a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Politics
Rosa Parks was an active participant in the civil rights movement and supported Democratic Party activities in the sphere. Although not being a member of the Communist Party, Parks attended meetings with her husband.
Views
As an active participant of the civil rights movement, Rosa Parks was very much concerned with social justice cases.
The activist life of Rosa Parks started as early as 1930. In 1931, false claims of rape were reported by 2 white ladies. 9 black teenagers were accused of sexually assaulting the two white ladies on a train. With support from her husband and other concerned activists, Rosa Parks successfully raised funds to cater for the legal defense of the 9 Scottsboro teenagers. When medical examinations were conducted to ascertain the rape allegation, it yielded no evidence of a sexual assault.
Despite that fact, the court displayed its utmost misjudgment; it unfairly sentenced two guys to prison. History recorded the Scottsboro boys’ case as a dark day of legal injustice. Putting that aside, the Scottsboro case inspired Rosa Parks to continue to press against discrimination.
In 1944, Recy Taylor (a black American woman), was sexually abused by 6 white guys when she closed from a church service. At that time, Rosa Parks was a secretary of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). She stepped in to Recy Taylor’s case by thoroughly investigating the incidence. She co-formed a committee to create awareness and seek support for Recy Taylor.
A black civil rights movement from across the nation thronged to seek justice for Recy Taylor. When the 6 rapists pleaded guilty to the offense, racial biases still found its way to corrupt the judges. The offenders were allowed by the white juries to walk away scot-free. Despite the injustice, Rosa Parks won a reputation for her attempt to bring the perpetrators to book.
Rosa Parks was also very much concerned with her name usage. In 1998, the hip-hop group Outkast released a song, "Rosa Parks," which shot up to the top 100 on the Billboard music charts the following year. The song featured the chorus: "Ah-ha, hush that fuss. Everybody move to the back of the bus."
In 1999, Parks filed a lawsuit against the group and its label alleging defamation and false advertising because Outkast used Parks’ name without her permission. Outkast said the song was protected by the First Amendment and did not violate Parks’ publicity rights. In 2003, a judge dismissed the defamation claims. Parks’ lawyer soon refiled based on the false advertising claims for using her name without permission, seeking over $5 billion.
On April 14, 2005, the case was settled. Outkast and co-defendants SONY BMG Music Entertainment, Arista Records LLC and LaFace Records admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to work with the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute to develop educational programs that “enlighten today's youth about the significant role Rosa Parks played in making America a better place for all races,” according to a statement released at the time.
Quotations:
"I find that if I'm thinking too much of my own problems, and the fact that at times things are not just like I want them to be, I don't make any progress at all. But if I look around and see what I can do, and go on with that, then I move on."
"People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired but that wasn't true. I was not tired physically. I was not old. I was 42. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."
"Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome."
"I did not get on the bus to get arrested. I got on the bus to go home."
"We didn't have any civil rights. It was just a matter of survival, of existing from one day to the next. I remember going to sleep as a girl hearing the Klan ride at night and hearing a lynching and being afraid the house would burn down."
Membership
Rosa Parks was an active member of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and she served as its secretary until 1957. She continued her activities in the organization after she moved from Montgomery.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
,
United States
Personality
Shy and soft-spoken, Parks often appeared uncomfortable with the near-beatification bestowed upon her by blacks, who revered her as a symbol of their quest for dignity and equality. She would say that she hoped only to inspire others, especially young people, "to be dedicated enough to make useful lives for themselves and to help others."
Quotes from others about the person
"Mrs. Rosa Parks is a very fine person. And, since it had to happen, I'm happy that it happened to a person like Mrs. Parks, for nobody can doubt the boundless outreach of her integrity. Nobody can doubt the height of her character nobody can doubt the depth of her Christian commitment and devotion to the teachings of Jesus. And I'm happy since it had to happen, it happened to a person that nobody can call a disturbing factor in the community. Mrs. Parks is a fine Christian person, unassuming, and yet there is integrity and character there. And just because she refused to get up, she was arrested." - Martin Luther King Jr.
Connections
In 1932, at age 19, Rosa Louise McCauley met and married Raymond Parks, a barber and an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. They had no children.