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.
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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.