Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks was a woman with strong pride. She had a lot of courage. She started something very helpful for black people.


Rosa parks was born on February 4, 1913,in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her real name is Rosa Louise McCauley. She was later called the Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement. On December 1, 1955 she refused to obey a bus driver. The bus driver said that she had to give up her seat to make room for a white person.

Rosa Parks said no, and then the bus driver called the police. Rosa was arrested. She started the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It is one of the largest movements against racial segregation. After Rosa Prks was arrested she lost her job at a department store. Dr. Martin Luther King started a boycot. He asked black people to stop using buses and to start walking. Slowly, the bus company begins to lose money. 75 percent of its riders are black. They all have joined the boycott.

The company still doesn't change its segregation policies. The protesters are mostly poor and supporting large families. They can't afford to miss work and they will be back on the buses soon. Eventually the bus company is forced to cut back on the number of buses serving the city. It also raises the price of a ride from ten to fifteen cents.

Because the protesters are now shopping closer to home, the white owners of shops are starting to lose money. Some of the white people of Montgomery begin to harass and threaten anyone involved with the boycott. White people even bomed Dr. Martin Luther King's house. His wife and daughter was inside the house. Fortunately they didn't get hurt.



Rosa Parks died when she ninety-two on October 24, 2005, in her apartment on the east side of the city. A memorial service was held on October 29, 2005. In the evening the casket was transported to Washington, D.C., and it was taken aboard a bus similar to the one in when she made her protest. 50,000 people saw the casket there. The event was broadcast on television on October 31, 2005. Rosa's funeral service was seven hours long. It was held on Wednesday, November 2, 2005, at the Greater Grace Temple Church.


In 1979, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People awarded Parks the Spingarn Medal. She received the Martin Luther King Jr. She was put into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1983. On September 9, 1996, Bill Clinton presented Rosa with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1998, she became a part of the International Freedom Conductor Award given by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The next year Rosa was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. She also received the Detroit-Windsor International Freedom Festival Freedom Award. Time magazine named Rosa one of the 20 most powerful figures of the twentieth century. In 2000, her home state awarded her the Alabama Academy of Honor and the first Governor's Medal of Honor for Extraordinary Courage. She was made an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority

timeline of rosa parks

Feb. 4, 1913: Rosa Louise McCauley was born in Tuskegee, Alabama.


1932: She marries Raymond Parks, a 29-year-old barber.


1943: Rosa Parks is elected secretary of the Montgomery branch of the NAACP.


1945: Rosa Parks registers to vote.


1954: The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling paves the way for large-scale desegregation.


Dec. 1, 1955: Rosa Parks refuses to give her bus seat to a white man and is arrested.


Dec. 5, 1955: Rosa Parks is fined $14 and the case goes to trial. More than 5,000 people pack Holt Street Baptist Church in Montgomery and pass a resolution to continue the boycott.


Jan. 4, 1956: As the boycott continues, the Montgomery City Commission doubles bus fares to 20 cents; children's fares raised to 10 cents. Jan. 30, 1956: The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s home is bombed. Montgomery City Commission issues $500 reward in connection with bombing.


Feb. 1, 1956: A lawsuit is filed in federal court.


April 30, 1956: Montgomery City Commission reaffirms its commitment to segregated seating on city buses.


June 4, 1956: Three federal judges vote 2-1 to strike down Montgomery bus segregation ordinances as unconstitutional.


Nov. 13, 1956: U.S. Supreme Court rules that segregation of city buses is unconstitutional.


Dec. 20 1956: Federal injunctions are served on the city, enforcing the Supreme Court's ruling on public transportation.


Dec. 21, 1956: Black Montgomerians end boycott of the bus system.7


Jan.-Feb. 1957: King, Charles K. Steele, and Fred L. Shuttlesworth establish the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which King is made the first president. The SCLC becomes a major force in organizing the civil rights movement.


1957: Parks and her husband move to Detroit.


Aug. 28, 1963: Rosa Parks joins in the March on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech before a crowd of about 250,000 at the Lincoln Memorial.


1965: Rosa Parks begins working in the office of Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. After serving as an administrative assistant more than 20 years, she retired in



1988. Parks worked with Conyers on making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a national holiday.


1977: Parks' husband, Raymond Parks, dies. Her brother, Sylvester, also dies.


1979: Rosa Parks receives prestigious Spingarn Award, the NAACP's highest honor for civil rights contributions. Parks' mother, Leona McCauley dies.


1987: Rosa Parks helps establish the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, which motivates youth to reach their potential. "I see the energy of young people as a real force for change," she wrote in her 1996 book, "Dear Mrs. Parks: A Dialogue With Today's Youth."


1992: Publishes her first book, "Rosa Parks: My Story" (New York: Dial Books) with Jim Haskins.


1994: Her memoir, "Quiet Strength," is published. Parks takes a trip to Japan; receives doctorate degree from Soka University. Travels to Stockholm, Sweden, to receive Rosa Parks Peace Prize and light the Peace Candle.


Aug. 30, 1994: Parks is attacked and beaten in her home by an African-American man who wanted money and apparently did not recognize her. She wrote after the incident, "I pray for this young man and the conditions in our country that have made him this way."


1996: Rosa Parks receives highest U.S. civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.


1999: Parks receives the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor from a bill widely supported by both houses of Congress. A lawsuit is filed on her behalf against BMG Entertainment, claiming the label allowed hip-hop duo Outkast to use her name without her permission for commercial purposes in their 1998 song "Rosa Parks." The suit was settled in 2005.


Dec. 1, 2000: The dedication and grand opening of Troy State University-Montgomery's Rosa Parks Museum and Library.


2002: CBS shows television movie about her life, "The Rosa Parks Story" starring Angela Bassett.


Oct. 24, 2005: Rosa Parks dies at 92.