Quick Facts
- NAME: Rosa Parks
- OCCUPATION: Civil Rights Activist
- BIRTH DATE: February 04, 1913
- DEATH DATE: October 24, 2005
- EDUCATION: Industrial School for Girls, Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Tuskegee, Alabama
- PLACE OF DEATH: Detroit, Michigan
- Originally: Rosa Louise McCauley
Best Known For
Civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger, spurring the Montgomery boycott and other efforts to end segregation.
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Parks Rosa. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved 10:02, Feb 08, 2012 from http://www.biography.com/people/rosa-parks-9433715
Parks Rosa [Internet]. 2012. http://www.biography.com/people/rosa-parks-9433715, February 08
" Parks Rosa." 2012. Biography.com 08 Feb 2012, 10:02 http://www.biography.com/people/rosa-parks-9433715
' Parks Rosa', Biography.com,(2012) http://www.biography.com/people/rosa-parks-9433715 [accessed Feb 08, 2012]
" Parks Rosa," Biography.com, http://www.biography.com/people/rosa-parks-9433715 (accessed Feb 08, 2012).
Parks Rosa [Internet]. Biography.com; 2012 [cited 2012 Feb 08]. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/rosa-parks-9433715.
Parks Rosa, http://www.biography.com/people/rosa-parks-9433715 (last visited Feb 08, 2012).
Parks Rosa, http://www.biography.com/people/rosa-parks-9433715 (last visited Feb 08, 2012).
Synopsis
Civil rights activist Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her refusal to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama bus spurred a city-wide boycott. The city of Montgomery had no choice but to lift the law requiring segregation on public buses. Rosa Parks received many accolades during her lifetime, including the NAACP's highest award.
Contents
Quotes
"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear."
"People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired.…the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."
"Each person must live their life as a model for others."
"I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free... so other people would be also free."
"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear."
Civil Rights Pioneer
Civil-rights activist. Born Rosa Louise McCauley on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her refusal to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus spurred on a city-wide boycott and helped launch nation-wide efforts to end segregation of public facilities.
Early Life and Education
Rosa Parks' childhood brought her early experiences with racial discrimination and activism for racial equality. After her parents separated, Rosa's mother moved the family to Pine Level, Alabama to live with her parents, Rose and Sylvester Edwards, on their farm. Both her grandparents were former slaves and strong advocates for racial equality. In one experience, Rosa's grandfather stood in front of their house with a shotgun while Ku Klux Klan members marched down the street. The city of Pine Level, Alabama had a new school building and bus transportation for white students while African-American students walked to the one-room schoolhouse, often lacking desks and adequate school supplies.
Through the rest of Rosa's education, she attended segregated schools in Montgomery. In 1929, while a junior in the eleventh grade, she left school to attend to her sick grandmother in Pine Level. She never returned, but instead got a job at a shirt factory in Montgomery. In 1932, Rosa married a barber named Raymond Parks who was an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). With Raymond's support, Rosa Parks finished her high school degree in 1933. She soon became actively involved in civil rights issues my joining the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP in 1943, serving as the secretary to the president, E.D. Nixon until 1957.
Ordered to the Back of the Bus
The Montgomery, Alabama city code required that all public transportation be segregated and that bus drivers had the "powers of a police officer of the city while in actual charge of any bus for the purposes of carrying out the provisions" of the code. While operating a bus, drivers were required to provide separate but equal accommodations for white and black passengers by assigning seats. This was accomplished with a line roughly in the middle of the bus separating white passengers in the front of the bus and African-American passengers in the back. When an African-American passenger boarded the bus, they had to get on at the front to pay their fare and then get off and re-board the bus at the back door. When the seats in the front of the bus filled up and more white passengers got on, the bus driver would move back the sign separating black and white passengers and, if necessary, ask black passengers give up their seat.
On December 1, 1955, after a long day at work at the Montgomery Fair department store, Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus for home. She took a seat in the first of several rows designated for "colored" passengers. Though the city's bus ordinance did give drivers the authority to assign seats, it didn't specifically give them the authority to demand a passenger to give up a seat to anyone (regardless of color). However, Montgomery bus drivers had adopted the custom of requiring black passengers to give up their seats to white passengers, when no other seats were available. If the black passenger protested, the bus
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View groupAfrican-Americans have a long history of activism in America, from fighting for the right to vote to pushing for integrated public spaces. Activists like Stokely Carmichael organized freedom rides, James Meredith fought to integrate blacks and whites at the University of Mississippi, and Rosa Parks instigated the Montgomery Bus Boycott. These protests were often legal and nonviolent, and made a powerful impact on civil rights in the U.S. With the help of activists like these—and many others—the country slowly worked to acknowledge the basic rights and contributions of African-Americans. Learn more about the many African-American activists who fought against the odds in order to achieve equality.
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