Rosa Parks raised Rosa Louise McCauley was born in Alabama. She would later attend the Alabama State Teachers College. Her mother was a teacher and her father a carpenter. She attained Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, graduated from the all African American Booker T. Washington High School in 1928. She attained Alabama State College in Montgomery for a short time.
She would become known as the “Mother” of the Civil Rights movement.
In 1943 she was elected to serve as the secretary for the National Association for the Achievement of Colored People youth.
On December 1, 1955 she had no intentions of starting a movement. Parks recognized the bus driver as someone who evicted her from the bus some twelve years earlier for refusing to reenter the bus from the rear.
Many other African Americans had been arrested for defying the racist practices before Parks. NAACP and church officials like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. decided that Park’s arrest would provide an excellent catalyst for a successful boycott.
After being fired and continual harassment by angry whites in 1957 Parks and her husband decided to move to Detroit (at that time it was a progressive city for African Americans).
The United States post office honors Rosa Park’s 100th birthday with a new stamp. Parks moved to Detroit with her husband in 1957 shortly after the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott.
Parks served as a receptionist and staff assistance for John Conyers for 25 years. Rosa’s many awards included; a honorary degree, NAACP Spingarn Medal, Freedom Award, the Martin Luther King Jr. nonviolent Peace prize, and the Eleanor Roosevelt Women of courage.
In 1988 she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development to train African Americans for leadership.
In 1994 Parks was beaten and robbed for under $60.00 in her home on Detroit’s West side. Neighbors were so outraged and infuriated the aslant run to the police for protection for fear of the crowd.
In October 1995 she participated in the “Million Man March”.
Rosa Parks died on October 24, 2005 at the age of 92. Her funeral in Detroit on November 2 was slated for two hours. It lasted eight.
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