Biography of Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks was a civil rights leader and activist in the United States. She is best known for participating in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955–1956. Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. She grew up when people of different races were forced to live in separate places and treated severely.

In December 1955, Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, to a white person, as the city’s segregation laws required. Her civil disobedience led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a protest against the city’s rules that separated public buses by race. The boycott went on for more than a year and was an essential part of the civil rights movement in the United States.

Parks was arrested and found to have broken the city’s segregation laws because of what she did. Her case became a cause célèbre, and her arrest led the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in November 1956 that the city’s segregation laws were unconstitutional.

After the boycott, Parks became a symbol of the civil rights movement and an example for many people worldwide. In 1979, the NAACP gave her its highest honour, the Spingarn Medal. In 1996, President Bill Clinton gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian award.

Parks worked for the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and other civil rights organisations for the rest of her life. She died in Detroit, Michigan, on October 24, 2005, when she was 92. Her legacy as a leader in the civil rights movement and one of the most influential people in U.S. history still inspires many people today.

Rosa Parks is also called the “mother of the freedom movement” and the “first lady of civil rights.” Her refusal to give up her seat on the bus and her arrest led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a key moment in the Civil Rights Movement and the integration of public transportation in the U.S.

Key Facts of Rosa Parks

1. Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4, 1913.
2. Parks was an activist and leader for civil rights. She is best known for participating in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955–1956.
3. On December 1, 1955, Parks didn’t give up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, to a white person, as the city’s segregation laws required.
4. Her civil disobedience led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a protest against the city’s laws that separated public buses by race.
5. Parks was arrested and found to have broken the city’s segregation laws because of what she did.
6. Her case became a cause célèbre, and her arrest led the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in November 1956 that the city’s segregation laws were unconstitutional.
7. In 1979, the NAACP gave Parks its highest honour, the Spingarn Medal. In 1996, President Bill Clinton gave Parks the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.
8. She worked for the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and other civil rights organisations for the rest of her life.
9. Parks died in Detroit, Michigan, on October 24, 2005, at 92.
10. Rosa Parks is also called the “mother of the freedom movement” and the “first lady of civil rights.”
11. Her refusal to give up her seat on the bus and her arrest led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a key moment in the Civil Rights Movement and the integration of public transportation in the U.S.
12. Parks also wrote a book called “Rosa Parks: My Story,” which came out in 1992.
13. In 2013, a statue of Parks was put up in the National Statuary Hall Collection of the United States Capitol. It was the first statue of an African American woman in the collection.