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Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an African American civil rights activist. She has been called "the mother of the modern-day American civil rights movement" and "the mother of the freedom movement." She was a member of the local chapter of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

 

Rosa Parks is best known for what she did in her hometown of Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955. While she sat in a seat in the middle of the bus behind the 10 front seats that were saved for white passengers, the bus driver told her to move to the back of the bus so a white passenger could take the seat toward the middle of the bus. During this time, when the seats reserved for white people on a bus were full, black people were told to get up from their seats. Parks refused to move. Like so many others, she was tired of being treated as a lower-class person because of her skin color.

Rosa was arrested. This led to the Montgomery bus boycott. The boycott lasted 381 days, and it caused a change in the law. After that, black people were able to sit wherever they wanted to on a bus. Her refusal to let others treat her differently was an important symbol in the campaign against racial segregation.

 

 

In 1999, Rosa Parks was awarded the Detroit-Windsor International Freedom Festival Freedom Award. In 1999, Time Magazine named Rosa Parks as one of the 20 most powerful and influential figures of the century. In 2000, the State of Alabama awarded Rosa Parks the Governor's Medal of Honor for Extraordinary Courage.

 

 

Learn more about Rosa Parks by visiting the following sites: