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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1982)
Rosa Parks Mother of the Movement Rosa I.. Parks is know n as the M o th e r o f the C iv il Rights M o ve ment. Her refusal to give up her bus seat triggered the bus boycott in M o n tg o m ery , A la b a m a , in 1935. H er courageous action was to alter the course o f Black A m erican his tory and introduce to the world one o f its greatest leaders— D r. M artin Luther King, Jr. Rosa Louise was born on Febru ary 4, 1913, to James and Leona M cCaw ley in Tuskegee. A labam a. The family moved to Montgomery, A la b a m a , when Rosa was eleven years o ld . She m arried Raym ond Parks and they continued to live in M on tg o m ery where M rs . Parks worked as a seamstress. The Parkses were long-time acti vists in the pursuit o f c ivil rights, long before it was p o p u la r. M r. Parks was a freedom fighter for the Scottsboro Boys in the 1930s. Both were involved in voter registration drives for Blacks. Rosa Parks was the secretary fo r the M ontgom ery branch o f the N A A C P . She was also the Youth Director for the organiza tion. She was preparing for a major youth conference when arrested for the bus incident. The petite, modest Rosa Parks re calls the historic day o f December 1, 1955. She boarded the bus coming home fro m w o rk. She sat in the “ colored section.“ as the bus began to HU there was a white man stand ing. The d river asked three Black people to stand so the w hite man could be seated. They moved. Rosa Parks remained seated. “ I am not going to m ove. I have paid my m o n ey ." The driver remarked, " I w ill have you a rre s te d ." She told him , “ Go ahead." The Parks case began the Montgomery Bus Boycott which was led by a young, local minister, D r. M a rtin Luther King, Jr. The boycott lasted a year and re sulted in the outlawing o f segrega tion Award. In A pril 1978, the Rosa L. Parks Foundation was established to build a home and gallery to house her per sonal papers. The Detroit Historical D is tric t has granted the property landm ark status. Some o f her p a pers have been donated to Wayne State University o f public facilities in the South. The Parks incidents al so marked the beginning o f a move ment designed to change America’ s face. Since that historic day in M o n t gomery. Mrs. Parks has continued her work in the civil rights move- 'We shall overcome. . . ' ro s a L. Parks "W e have inherited a large house, a great 'world house' in which we have to live together—Black and White, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Moslem and Hindu—a family unduly separated in ideas, culture and interests, who, because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in peace." —Martin Luther King, Jr. HOFFM AN C O N S T R U C T IO N COMPANY An Equal Opportunity Employer 3 ment and has received several cita tions for her outstanding contribu tions. The Southern Christian Lead ership Conference (SCLC) sponsors an annual Rosa Parks Freedom Award. She has received an honor ary doctorate from Shaw College in D e tro it, M ich ig a n . In 1976, the Mayor o f Detroit, Coleman Young, named a street "R o sa Parks Boul evard.” In 1977, the United A u to m obile W orkers awarded her the Social Justice A w ard. In the same year, she received the Humanitarian Award from the Catholic Universi ties o f A m erica , in W ashing to n , D .C . In 1978, the Progressive N a tio n al C o nventio n presented her w ith the M a rtin L u th er K in g , Jr. Walter P. Rcuther Library Archives o f U rban A ffa irs and L ab o r. The Rosa L . Parks F o u n d atio n is in terested in senior citizens and youth. Mrs. Parks sees a void in the family and the fo u n d a tio n w ill support programming to promote relations between the very young and senior citizens. Mrs. Parks was widowed in 1977. Today she lives in D etro it, M ic h i gan. where she cares for her mother. She is an administrator in the office o f Congressman John Conyers, Jr.
