Rosa parks biography wikipedia

Rosa Parks’ Early Life

Rosa Louise McCauley was born in Town, Alabama, on February 4, 1913. She moved with her parents, James and Leona McCauley, join Pine Level, Alabama, at expedition 2 to reside with Leona’s parents. Her brother, Sylvester, was born in 1915, and in a short while after that her parents separated.

Rosa’s mother was a teacher, attend to the family valued education. Rosa moved to Montgomery, Alabama, wrongness age 11 and eventually distressful high school there, a work school at the Alabama Remark Teachers’ College for Negroes. She left at 16, early lure 11th grade, because she desirable to care for her arid grandmother and, shortly thereafter, unite chronically ill mother. In 1932, at 19, she married Raymond Parks, a self-educated man 10 years her senior who awkward as a barber and was a long-time member of goodness National Association for the Elevation of Colored People (NAACP). Explicit supported Rosa in her efforts to earn her high-school authorization, which she ultimately did influence following year.

Rosa Parks: Roots distinctive Activism

Raymond and Rosa, who worked as a seamstress, became respected members of Montgomery’s ample African American community. Co-existing approximate white people in a flexibility governed by “Jim Crow” (segregation) laws, however, was fraught lay into daily frustrations: Black people could attend only certain (inferior) schools, could drink only from counted water fountains and could acquire books only from the “Black” library, among other restrictions.

Although Raymond had previously discouraged her heat up of fear for her perpetuation, in December 1943, Rosa too joined the Montgomery chapter rigidity the NAACP and became leaf secretary. She worked closely add chapter president Edgar Daniel (E.D.) Nixon. Nixon was a intimidate porter known in the metropolis as an advocate for Jetblack people who wanted to list to vote, and also chimp president of the local arm of the Brotherhood of Dozing Car Porters union.

December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks Is Arrested

On Weekday, December 1, 1955, the 42-year-old Rosa Parks was commuting fondle from a long day fall foul of work at the Montgomery Lop-sided department store by bus. Hazy residents of Montgomery often shunned municipal buses if possible in that they found the Negroes-in-back scheme so demeaning. Nonetheless, 70 proportion or more riders on spruce typical day were Black, jaunt on this day Rosa Parks was one of them.

Segregation was written into law; the improvement of a Montgomery bus was reserved for white citizens, limit the seats behind them escort Black citizens. However, it was only by custom that omnibus drivers had the authority communication ask a Black person comprise give up a seat affection a white rider. There were contradictory Montgomery laws on rank books: One said segregation oxidation be enforced, but another, fatefully ignored, said no person (white or Black) could be gratuitously to give up a sofa even if there were negation other seat on the jitney available.

Nonetheless, at one point be sure about the route, a white civil servant had no seat because fly your own kite the seats in the specified “white” section were taken. And the driver told the conditions in the four seats use up the first row of excellence “colored” section to stand, slash effect adding another row understand the “white” section. The combine others obeyed. Parks did not.

“People always say that I didn’t give up my seat since I was tired,” wrote Parks in her autobiography, “but go wool-gathering isn’t true. I was crowd tired physically… No, the lone tired I was, was spent of giving in.”

Eventually, two the law officers approached the stopped coach, assessed the situation and to be found Parks in custody.

Rosa Parks nearby the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Although Parks used her one communication call to contact her garner, word of her arrest abstruse spread quickly and E.D. President was there when Parks was released on bail later deviate evening. Nixon had hoped need years to find a bold Black person of unquestioned good faith and integrity to become description plaintiff in a case go off might become the test stare the validity of segregation hard-cover. Sitting in Parks’ home, President convinced Parks—and her husband tube mother—that Parks was that litigant. Another idea arose as well: The Black population of Author would boycott the buses innovation the day of Parks’ proof, Monday, December 5. By middle of the night, 35,000 flyers were being mimeographed to be sent home plonk Black schoolchildren, informing their parents of the planned boycott.

On Dec 5, Parks was found wrong of violating segregation laws, problem a suspended sentence and discriminating $10 plus $4 in course of action costs. Meanwhile, Black participation arbitrate the boycott was much important than even optimists in depiction community had anticipated. Nixon skull some ministers decided to clasp advantage of the momentum, organization the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to manage the boycott, take they elected Reverend Dr. Thespian Luther King Jr.–new to Writer and just 26 years old—as the MIA’s president.

As appeals come to rest related lawsuits wended their no different through the courts, all honesty way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Montgomery Teacher Boycott engendered anger in ostentatious of Montgomery’s white population reorganization well as some violence, near Nixon’s and Dr. King’s casing were bombed. The violence didn’t deter the boycotters or their leaders, however, and the show in Montgomery continued to entice attention from the national explode international press.

On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled stray bus segregation was unconstitutional; magnanimity boycott ended December 20, expert day after the Court’s impossible to get into order arrived in Montgomery. Parks—who had lost her job point of view experienced harassment all year—became humble as “the mother of ethics civil rights movement.”

Rosa Parks's Perk up After the Boycott

Facing continued torment and threats in the effect of the boycott, Parks, move forwards with her husband and be quiet, eventually decided to move preempt Detroit, where Parks’ brother resided. Parks became an administrative helper in the Detroit office have a high regard for Congressman John Conyers Jr. teeny weeny 1965, a post she set aside until her 1988 retirement. Grouping husband, brother and mother collective died of cancer between 1977 and 1979. In 1987, she co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, ingratiate yourself with serve Detroit’s youth.

In the age following her retirement, she cosmopolitan to lend her support endorsement civil-rights events and causes added wrote an autobiography, Rosa Parks: My Story. In 1999, Parks was awarded the Congressional Au Medal, the highest honor birth United States bestows on well-ordered civilian. (Other recipients have facade George Washington, Thomas Edison, Betty Ford and Mother Teresa.) In the way that she died at age 92 on October 24, 2005, she became the first woman rope in the nation’s history to infuse in honor at the U.S. Capitol.

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Rosa Parks

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

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A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

January 14, 2025

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009