Programs and Events

African-American History Month, 2007 

Rosa Parks

1913-2005

Also known as: Rosa Parks, Rosa Louise Lee Parks, Rosa L. Parks, Rosa Louise McCauley, Rosa Lee McCauley Parks, Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, Rosa Louise Parks, Rosa McCauley

Birth: February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama
Death: October 24, 2005 in Detroit, Michigan
Source: Contemporary Authors Online, Thomson Gale, 2006.

"Sidelights"

Rosa Parks's contribution to the civil rights movement is legendary: When she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus for a white man, the movement to end segregation in the United States was galvanized. More than thirty years after this pivotal event, Parks collaborated with Jim Haskins, the noted biographer of African American historical and sports figures, to write Rosa Parks: My Story. Helen E. Williams maintained in School Library Journal that in this work Parks "corrects some media-created distortions" relating to the bus incident. In addition, a Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that Parks's autobiography enables its readers "to put this historic moment into a broader context."

Parks's story began in rural Alabama, where she was born in 1913. Her father, a carpenter, and her mother, a teacher, separated when she was just two years old; Parks's mother took her and her younger brother to live with their maternal grandparents in Pine Level, Alabama. Parks attended the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls and Booker T. Washington High School, but dropped out of the latter before completion to help take care of her mother when she fell ill. Parks also attended Alabama State College for a short time.

Throughout her childhood, Parks experienced the pain and fear caused by hate, injustice, and segregation. Raymond Parks, a barber, shared her concerns, and the couple married in 1932. Raymond was working to encourage black people to register to vote and was a member of the National Committee to Save the Scottsboro Boys, formed in support of a group of young black men who had been accused of raping white women. He supported Parks when she became more active in the struggle against segregation. In addition to working for the Montgomery Voters League, she signed on as one of the first female members of the Montgomery Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and was elected secretary of the branch in 1943.

During the 1950s, Parks worked as a seamstress at the Montgomery Fair department store and had to ride a segregated bus to get to work. Like other black people who rode the bus, Parks was forced to abide by the law that reserved the first ten seats for whites and mandated that blacks give up their own seats if necessary to accommodate white passengers. Black riders also had to enter the bus by the back door; on one occasion in 1943, Parks was ejected from the bus for failing to do so.

On December 1, 1955, Parks was sitting with three others at the front of the black section of a bus when a white man boarded. As there were no seats available in the white section, the driver told Parks and the others in her row to move. Initially, no one complied, but the other passengers vacated their seats when the driver insisted that they not make trouble for themselves. Parks, however, remained seated even after the driver threatened to call the police to force her to move. When the police arrived, they arrested Parks and took her to jail. As Parks explained in her autobiography, she did not intend to change history that December evening. "If I had been paying attention, I wouldn't even have gotten on the bus."

Nevertheless, other leaders of the nascent Civil Rights Movement rallied around the injustice of Parks's arrest. Attorney Clifford Durr, his wife Virginia, who was a civil rights activist, and E. D. Nixon, who had served as branch president of the NAACP, bailed Parks out of jail for one hundred dollars, and Nixon suggested that Parks appeal her case. Parks agreed, despite her family's valid concerns for her personal safety. When Jo Ann Robinson, the president of the Women's Political Council, who had been planning a boycott of the segregated buses, heard the news of Parks's arrest, she distributed pamphlets stating that the boycott would begin. The ministers of the city's black congregations lent their support, creating the Montgomery Improvement Association and electing the young Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., its president.

The boycott continued for 381 days. In Rosa Parks: My Story, Parks described how the black community worked together to sustain the effort and find alternative ways to get to work, as well as how some whites attempted to threaten them into compliance. Finally, the United States District Court and the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Montgomery Improvement Association's suit against segregated seating, and the buses were legally integrated.

Although ultimately successful, Parks's determined protest was not without cost to herself and her family. Harassed continuously, Parks lost her position as an assistant tailor; her husband, who also lost his job, suffered a nervous breakdown. The couple could not find work anywhere near Montgomery. In August, 1957, they moved to Detroit, Michigan, where Rosa's brother lived. Parks was hospitalized briefly for stomach ulcers and the family's financial situation remained unstable until Parks began work as a staff assistant to U.S. Congressman John Conyers in 1965.

Parks worked at Congressman Conyers' office as an assistant and receptionist until her retirement in 1988. America's appreciation for her is reflected in the long list of awards and honors she received, among them a seventy-seventh birthday celebration in the nation's capitol attended by prominent entertainers, government dignitaries, and a host of notable black leaders. In the later years of her life, Parks suffered from declining health. She died at her home in Detroit in 2005.


PERSONAL INFORMATION

Born February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, AL; died October 24, 2005, in Detroit, MI; daughter of James (a carpenter) and Leona (a teacher; maiden name, Edwards) McCauley; married Raymond Parks (a barber and civil rights activist), December 18, 1932 (died, 1977). Education: Attended Alabama State College (now Alabama State University). Memberships: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Detroit and Women's Public Affairs Committee, Women's Public Affairs Committee of 100.


AWARDS

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference sponsors annual Rosa Parks Freedom Award, beginning in 1963; Rosa Parks Boulevard and Rosa Parts Art Center, both Detroit, MI, 1969; honored by Women's Missionary Society, AME Church at Quadrennial Conventions, 1971; Spingarn Medal, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), 1979; Women in Community Service awards Rosa Parks Award, beginning in 1979; Martin Luther King, Jr. Award, 1980; Service Award, Ebony, 1980; Martin Luther King, Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize, 1980; Eleanor Roosevelt Women of Courage Award, Wonder Woman Foundation, 1984; Medal of Honor for contribution to American ethnic diversity, celebration of Statue of Liberty's 100th birthday, 1986; Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Award, 1987; Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Legislative Achievement Award, 1990; Parents' Choice Award, 1992, and Hungry Mind Award, 1993, for Rosa Parks: My Story; Rosa Parks Peace Prize, 1994; Medal of Freedom awarded by U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton, 1996; State of Michigan published Act no. 28 of 1997 designating the first Monday following February 4 as Mrs. Rosa Parks's Day; dedication of Rosa L. Parks Learning Center, Botsford Commons, 1998; International Freedom Conductor's Award, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 1998; Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, 1999; named as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th Century, Time magazine; Rosa Parks Library and Museum, Troy State University, opened in 2000; Image Award for Best Supporting Actress, NAACP, for role in Touched by an Angel television episode "Black like Monica"; Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, NAACP, for Dear Mrs. Parks: A Dialogue with Today's Youth; has received keys to many cities and more than forty-three honorary doctorate degrees from various institutions, including Mount Holyoke College, 1981, Shaw College, and Soka University (Tokyo, Japan).


CAREER

Civil rights activist and speaker. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Montgomery, AL, secretary, 1943-56, and youth advisor; office of U.S. Congressman John Conyers, Jr., Detroit, MI, administrative assistant, receptionist, secretary, 1965-88; African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), became deaconess, 1964, affiliated with St. Matthew AME Church, Detroit, MI; Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development (youth assistance organization), founder with Elaine Eason Steele, 1987. Worked variously in her early career as a seamstress, housekeeper, hotel supervisor, and life insurance agent.