Capitol. Since the founding of the practice in 1852, Parks was the 31st person, the first American who had not been a U.S.
Parks was deeply saddened and angry at the news, particularly because Till's case had garnered much more attention than any of the cases she and the Montgomery NAACP had worked on—and yet, the two men still walked free. ==Parks arrest and bus boycott== ===Montgomery buses: law and prevailing customs=== In 1900, Montgomery had passed a city ordinance to segregate bus passengers by race.
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott.
California and Missouri commemorate Rosa Parks Day on her birthday, February 4, while Ohio and Oregon commemorate the anniversary of her arrest, December 1. ==Early life== Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4, 1913, to Leona (née Edwards), a teacher, and James McCauley, a carpenter.
She later said: "As far back as I remember, I could never think in terms of accepting physical abuse without some form of retaliation if possible." ===Early activism=== In 1932, Rosa married Raymond Parks, a barber from Montgomery.
At her husband's urging, she finished her high school studies in 1933, at a time when fewer than 7% of African Americans had a high-school diploma. In December 1943, Parks became active in the civil rights movement, joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, and was elected secretary at a time when this was considered a woman's job.
The notorious Scottsboro case had been brought to prominence by the Communist Party. In the 1940s, Parks and her husband were members of the League of Women Voters.
Those preceding her included Bayard Rustin in 1942, Irene Morgan in 1946, Lillie Mae Bradford in 1951, Sarah Louise Keys in 1952, and the members of the ultimately successful Browder v.
At her husband's urging, she finished her high school studies in 1933, at a time when fewer than 7% of African Americans had a high-school diploma. In December 1943, Parks became active in the civil rights movement, joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, and was elected secretary at a time when this was considered a woman's job.
I did a lot of walking in Montgomery." One day in 1943, Parks boarded a bus and paid the fare.
Blake, who had left her in the rain in 1943.
She worked for the local NAACP leader Edgar Nixon, even though he maintained that "Women don't need to be nowhere but in the kitchen." When Parks asked, "Well, what about me?", he replied: "I need a secretary and you are a good one." In 1944, in her capacity as secretary, she investigated the gang-rape of Recy Taylor, a black woman from Abbeville, Alabama.
Sometime soon after 1944, she held a brief job at Maxwell Air Force Base, which, despite its location in Montgomery, Alabama, did not permit racial segregation because it was federal property.
In 1945, despite the Jim Crow laws and discrimination by registrars, she succeeded in registering to vote on her third try. In August 1955, black teenager Emmett Till was brutally murdered after reportedly flirting with a young white woman while visiting relatives in Mississippi.
Those preceding her included Bayard Rustin in 1942, Irene Morgan in 1946, Lillie Mae Bradford in 1951, Sarah Louise Keys in 1952, and the members of the ultimately successful Browder v.
Those preceding her included Bayard Rustin in 1942, Irene Morgan in 1946, Lillie Mae Bradford in 1951, Sarah Louise Keys in 1952, and the members of the ultimately successful Browder v.
Those preceding her included Bayard Rustin in 1942, Irene Morgan in 1946, Lillie Mae Bradford in 1951, Sarah Louise Keys in 1952, and the members of the ultimately successful Browder v.
The United States Congress has called her "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement". On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks rejected bus driver James F.
They encouraged—and eventually helped sponsor—Parks in the summer of 1955 to attend the Highlander Folk School, an education center for activism in workers' rights and racial equality in Monteagle, Tennessee.
In 1945, despite the Jim Crow laws and discrimination by registrars, she succeeded in registering to vote on her third try. In August 1955, black teenager Emmett Till was brutally murdered after reportedly flirting with a young white woman while visiting relatives in Mississippi.
On November 27, 1955, four days before she would make her stand on the bus, Rosa Parks attended a mass meeting at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery that addressed this case, as well as the recent murders of the activists George W.
Parks waited for the next bus, determined never to ride with Blake again. ===Refusal to move=== After working all day, Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus, a General Motors Old Look bus belonging to the Montgomery City Lines, around 6 p.m., Thursday, December 1, 1955, in downtown Montgomery.
Parks later said about being asked to move to the rear of the bus, "I thought of Emmett Till – a 14-year-old African American who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman in her family's grocery store, whose killers were tried and acquitted – and I just couldn't go back." Blake said, "Why don't you stand up?" Parks responded, "I don't think I should have to stand up." Blake called the police to arrest Parks.
The Women's Political Council was the first group to officially endorse the boycott. On Sunday, December 4, 1955, plans for the Montgomery bus boycott were announced at black churches in the area, and a front-page article in the Montgomery Advertiser helped spread the word.
In a 1992 interview with National Public Radio's Lynn Neary, Parks recalled: On the day of Parks' trial—December 5, 1955—the WPC distributed the 35,000 leaflets.
Gayle resulted in a November 1956 decision that bus segregation is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S.
Gayle 1956 lawsuit (Claudette Colvin, Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, and Mary Louise Smith) who were arrested in Montgomery for not giving up their bus seats months before Parks. ===Montgomery bus boycott=== Nixon conferred with Jo Ann Robinson, an Alabama State College professor and member of the Women's Political Council (WPC), about the Parks case.
She later said, "I was the only woman there, and they needed a secretary, and I was too timid to say no." She continued as secretary until 1957.
Parks traveled and spoke about the issues. In 1957, Raymond and Rosa Parks left Montgomery for Hampton, Virginia; mostly because she was unable to find work.
King wrote in his 1958 book Stride Toward Freedom that Parks' arrest was the catalyst rather than the cause of the protest: "The cause lay deep in the record of similar injustices." He wrote, "Actually, no one can understand the action of Mrs.
By 1962, these policies had destroyed 10,000 structures in Detroit, displacing 43,096 people, 70 percent of them African-American.
In 1964, Parks told an interviewer that, "I don't feel a great deal of difference here ...
From 1965 to 1988, she served as secretary and receptionist to John Conyers, an African-American US Representative.
Parks lived just a mile from the center of the riot that took place in Detroit in 1967, and she considered housing discrimination a major factor that provoked the disorder. In the aftermath Parks collaborated with members of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and the Republic of New Afrika in raising awareness of police abuse during the conflict.
She served on a "people's tribunal" on August 30, 1967, investigating the killing of three young men by police during the 1967 Detroit uprising, in what came to be known as the Algiers Motel incident.
She also supported and visited the Black Panther school in Oakland. ===1970s=== In the 1970s, Parks organized for the freedom of political prisoners in the United States, particularly cases involving issues of self-defense.
Gary Tyler was finally released in April 2016 after 41 years in prison. The 1970s were a decade of loss for Parks in her personal life.
Editorial (May 17, 1974).
Medical bills and time missed from work caused financial strain that required her to accept assistance from church groups and admirers. Her husband died of throat cancer on August 19, 1977, and her brother, her only sibling, died of cancer that November.
Parks received national recognition, including the NAACP's 1979 Spingarn Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, and a posthumous statue in the United States Capitol's National Statuary Hall.
There she nursed her mother Leona through the final stages of cancer and geriatric dementia until she died in 1979 at the age of 92. ===1980s=== In 1980, Parks—widowed and without immediate family—rededicated herself to civil rights and educational organizations.
The sculpture is currently displayed next to Augustus Saint-Gaudens' bust of Abraham Lincoln. ==In popular culture== In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Parks's name and picture.
There she nursed her mother Leona through the final stages of cancer and geriatric dementia until she died in 1979 at the age of 92. ===1980s=== In 1980, Parks—widowed and without immediate family—rededicated herself to civil rights and educational organizations.
Journey from Jim Crow: The Desegregation of Southern Transit, Columbia University Press, 1983. Brinkley, Douglas.
In February 1987, she co-founded, with Elaine Eason Steele, the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, an institute that runs the "Pathways to Freedom" bus tours which introduce young people to important civil rights and Underground Railroad sites throughout the country.
From 1965 to 1988, she served as secretary and receptionist to John Conyers, an African-American US Representative.
She held this position until she retired in 1988.
In a 1992 interview with National Public Radio's Lynn Neary, Parks recalled: On the day of Parks' trial—December 5, 1955—the WPC distributed the 35,000 leaflets.
Unrelated to her activism, Parks loaned quilts of her own making to an exhibit at Michigan State University of quilts by African-American residents of Michigan. ===1990s=== In 1992, Parks published Rosa Parks: My Story, an autobiography aimed at younger readers, which recounts her life leading to her decision to keep her seat on the bus.
New York: Scholastic Inc., 1992.
A few years later, she published Quiet Strength (1995), her memoir, which focuses on her faith. At age 81, Parks was robbed and assaulted in her home in central Detroit on August 30, 1994.
Learning of Parks' move, Little Caesars owner Mike Ilitch offered to pay for her housing expenses for as long as necessary. In 1994, the Ku Klux Klan applied to sponsor a portion of United States Interstate 55 in St.
LaFace Records) against American hip-hop duo OutKast and their record company, claiming that the duo's song "Rosa Parks", the most successful radio single of their 1998 album Aquemini, had used her name without permission.
When asked how she felt about this honor, she is reported to have commented, "It is always nice to be thought of." In 1999, Parks filmed a cameo appearance for the television series Touched by an Angel.
She is card #27 in the set. In March 1999, Parks filed a lawsuit (Rosa Parks v.
It was her last appearance on film; Parks began to suffer from health problems due to old age. ===2000s=== In 2002, Parks received an eviction notice from her $1,800 per month () apartment for non-payment of rent.
Responsibility for the payment of legal fees was not disclosed. The documentary The Legacy of Rosa Parks (2001) received a 2002 nomination for Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject.
When her rent became delinquent and her impending eviction was highly publicized in 2004, executives of the ownership company announced they had forgiven the back rent and would allow Parks, by then 91 and in extremely poor health, to live rent-free in the building for the remainder of her life.
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott.
Upon her death in 2005, she was the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.
In a telephone interview with CNN on October 24, 2005, Conyers recalled, "You treated her with deference because she was so quiet, so serene—just a very special person ...
The house was exhibited during part of 2018 in an arts centre in Providence, Rhode Island. ==Death and funeral== Parks died of natural causes on October 24, 2005, at the age of 92, in her apartment on the east side of Detroit.
She was survived by her sister-in-law (Raymond's sister), 13 nieces and nephews and their families, and several cousins, most of them residents of Michigan or Alabama. City officials in Montgomery and Detroit announced on October 27, 2005, that the front seats of their city buses would be reserved with black ribbons in honor of Parks until her funeral.
Paul African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, where she lay in repose at the altar on October 29, 2005, dressed in the uniform of a church deaconess.
An estimated 50,000 people viewed the casket there, and the event was broadcast on television on October 31, 2005.
Her funeral service was seven hours long and was held on November 2, 2005, at the Greater Grace Temple Church in Detroit.
2857, on which Parks was riding, was restored and placed on display in The Henry Ford museum 2004: In the Los Angeles County MetroRail system, the Imperial Highway/Wilmington station, where the A Line connects with the C Line, has been officially named the "Rosa Parks Station". 2005: * Senate Concurrent Resolution 61, 109th Congress, 1st Session, was agreed to October 29, 2005.
This set the stage for her to become the 1st woman to lie in honor, in the Capitol Rotunda. * On October 30, 2005 President George W.
public areas both within the country and abroad be flown at half-staff on the day of Parks' funeral. * Metro Transit in King County, Washington placed posters and stickers dedicating the first forward-facing seat of all its buses in Parks' memory shortly after her death, * The American Public Transportation Association declared December 1, 2005, the 50th anniversary of her arrest, to be a "National Transit Tribute to Rosa Parks Day". * On that anniversary, President George W.
In signing the resolution directing the Joint Commission on the Library to do so, the President stated: * Portion of Interstate 96 in Detroit was renamed by the state legislature as the Rosa Parks Memorial Highway in December 2005. 2006: * At Super Bowl XL, played at Detroit's Ford Field, long-time Detroit residents Coretta Scott King and Parks were remembered and honored by a moment of silence.
The lawsuit was settled on April 15, 2005 (six months and nine days before Parks' death); OutKast, their producer and record labels paid Parks an undisclosed cash settlement.
Rosa Parks: A Life, Penguin Books, October 25, 2005.
Parks Boulevard. On March 14, 2008, the State of California Government Center at 464 W.
The monument, created by sculptor Eugene Daub, is a part of the Capitol Art Collection among nine other females featured in the National Statuary Hall Collection. 2014: The asteroid 284996 Rosaparks, discovered in 2010 by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, was named in her memory.
Rosa Parks, Beacon Press, 2015, ==External links== Rosa Parks Library and Museum at Troy University The Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development Parks article in the Encyclopedia of Alabama Rosa Parks bus on display at the Henry Ford Museum Teaching and Learning Rosa Parks' Rebellious Life Norwood, Arlisha.
Gary Tyler was finally released in April 2016 after 41 years in prison. The 1970s were a decade of loss for Parks in her personal life.
Several of Parks' family members alleged that her financial affairs had been mismanaged. In 2016, Parks' former residence in Detroit was threatened with demolition.
In 2018, the house was moved back to the USA.
The house was exhibited during part of 2018 in an arts centre in Providence, Rhode Island. ==Death and funeral== Parks died of natural causes on October 24, 2005, at the age of 92, in her apartment on the east side of Detroit.
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