Rosa Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005 ) was a civil rights activist best known for her role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott .
Born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama, Rosa Parks grew up living with her mother and grandparents in Pine Level, Alabama. She was forced to quit school at age 16 to take care of her sick grandmother and then her mother .
In 1932 , at age 19, she married Raymond Parks and soon after earned her high school diploma. Parks and her husband were active in the Montgomery , Alabama, chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ), which Rosa joined in 1943 .
On December 1, 1955 , Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger, resulting in her arrest. Local civil rights activists arranged a boycott of the segregated Montgomery bus system to correspond with the day of Parks’ trial. The 381-day-long bus boycott proved successful, and the city of Montgomery was forced to desegregate its public transportation following a 1956 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
In 1957, Rosa and her husband moved to Detroit, Michigan, where she worked in the office of Congressman John Conyers Jr. from 1965 until her retirement in 1988. In her later life , Parks continued to be involved in the civil rights movement and also championed women’s rights causes.
In 1996, Rosa Parks was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 1999 was given the Congressional Gold Medal. Following her death in 2005 , she became the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.
Learn more about Rosa Parks through historical newspapers from our archives. Explore newspaper articles, headlines, images, and other primary sources below.
