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February 4th, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama

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Rosa Parks "Keeping Vigil" with her grandfather

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Rosa Parks "Keeping Vigil" with her grandfather

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1919

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*Became youth leader and secretary for Montgomery chapter of NAACP

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*Became youth leader and secretary for Montgomery chapter of NAACP

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1943-1957

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August 28th, 1955 in Drew, Mississippi.

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The Murder of Emmett Till | Articles and Essays | Civil Rights History Project | Digital Collections | Library of Congress

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The murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955 brought nationwide attention to the racial violence and injustice prevalent in Mississippi. While visiting his relatives in Mississippi, Till went to the Bryant store with his cousins, and may have whistled at Carolyn Bryant. Her husband, Roy Bryant, and…

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December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama

Primary Source

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Transcript of Rosa Parks's Trial, December 5, 1955. Document. Frank Johnson Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (025.00.00)
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On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for disorderly conduct for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. Civil Rights leader E. D. Nixon bailed her out of jail, joined by white friends Clifford Durr, an attorney, and his wife, Virginia. Rosa did not win her case, which went to trial in the Recorder's Court of the city of Montgomery on December 5. She was fined $14.00, including court costs. Her attorney Fred Gray appealed, but lost on a technicality.

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Rosa Parks Arrested | The Bus Boycott | Explore | Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words | Exhibitions at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress

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Showcases rarely seen materials that offer an intimate view of Rosa Parks and documents her life and activism-creating a rich opportunity for viewers to discover new dimensions to their understanding of this seminal figure. The materials are drawn extensively from the Rosa Parks Collection, a gift to the Library of Congress from the Howard G.

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December 13, 1955

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W. C. Patton, NAACP Alabama Field Secretary, to NAACP Executive Director Roy Wilkins and Director of Branches Gloster B. Current concerning the Montgomery Bus Situation, December 19, 1955. Memorandum. NAACP Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (087.00.00)
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W. C. Patton, NAACP Alabama Field Secretary, to NAACP Executive Director Roy Wilkins and Director of Branches Gloster B. Current concerning the Montgomery Bus Situation, December 19, 1955. Memorandum. NAACP Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (087.00.01)
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On December 13, 1955, NAACP state field secretary W. C. Patton met with Montgomery branch president Robert L. Matthews, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Fred Gray to discuss the bus boycott. Rosa authorized the NAACP to process her case. Gray, the Montgomery Improvement Association's chief counsel, agreed to represent her, with Thurgood Marshall, Robert L. Carter, and Clifford Durr advising. On February 1, 1956, Gray filed a federal lawsuit, Browder v. Gayle, on behalf of five female plaintiffs: Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, Jeanetta Reese, Claudette Colvin, and Mary Louise Smith. He omitted Rosa due to a technicality.

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Browder v. Gayle , Class Action Lawsuit | The Bus Boycott | Explore | Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words | Exhibitions at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress

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Showcases rarely seen materials that offer an intimate view of Rosa Parks and documents her life and activism-creating a rich opportunity for viewers to discover new dimensions to their understanding of this seminal figure. The materials are drawn extensively from the Rosa Parks Collection, a gift to the Library of Congress from the Howard G.

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December 5th, 1955 - December 20th, 1956

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In 1955, Claudette Colvin, a high school student in Montgomery, Alabama boarded the city bus. Her ride went without incident, until she was asked to move to the back of the bus and give her seat to a white passenger. She refused replying to the bus driver that it was her "constitutional right" to stay seated. For her refusal, Colvin was removed from the bus and arrested.

A few months later, Rosa Parks, another Montgomery resident and a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), was traveling home on the bus. When Parks was asked to move to the back, she refused, and like Colvin she was arrested.

Colvin and Parks along with other early protestors sparked a yearlong boycott of the Montgomery bus system. The boycott culminated in the desegregation of public transportation in Alabama and throughout the country. Although the movement is best known for catapulting the career of a young reverend, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the boycott was largely planned and executed by African American women. The Women's Political Council (WPC) was an organization of black women active in anti-segregation activities and politics. It was largely responsible for publicizing the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Jo Ann Robinson was the president of WPC and a teacher at Alabama State College when the boycott started. She recognized the inequality for African Americans on public transportation, but was unable to gain support for a large-scale boycott. With the arrest of Parks, Robinson seized the opportunity to protest the bus system's systematic discrimination and pushed the WPC to get to work.

One of WPC's many jobs was to publicize the boycott. This was done by printing leaflets and passing them out around the city. Robinson also reached out to other organizations like the NAACP and the Montgomery Improvement Association. Women not only represented leadership in the movement, but they also handled the day to day planning for protesters. They set up a car pool for women who worked long distances from their homes. Despite constant threats of violence, the boycott lasted for almost a year. On December 20, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision that stated it was unconstitutional to discriminate on public transit. With the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Civil Rights activists turned their attention to the integration of public schools.

By Arlisha Norwood, NWHM Fellow

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In 1955, Claudette Colvin, a high school student in Montgomery, Alabama boarded the city bus. Her ride went without incident, until she was asked to move to the back of the bus and give her seat to a white passenger. She refused replying to the bus driver that it was her "constitutional right" to stay seated.

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1957

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Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on February 4, 1913. She grew up during a time when segregation dominated most facets of life in the American South. From a young age, she was witness to racial discrimination and violence, including a highly active local Ku Klux Klan.

McCauley's parents separated shortly after the birth of her brother in 1915 when she, her mother and brother went to live with her maternal grandparents outside Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa was forced to leave high school to help attend her dying grandmother, then her ill mother. In December 1932 she married Raymond Parks, who encouraged her to get her diploma, which she did the following year. A decade later Parks joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and later became secretary for its Montgomery chapter.

On December 1, 1955, returning home from work on a city bus, Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger, as required by law. The driver threatened to have her arrested and she did not resist. A common misconception is that Parks remained in her seat because she was tired. Rather, she stayed because she was, in her own words, "tired of giving in." Parks was immediately arrested and charged with violating a city ordinance, an act that would forever affect the course of race relations in this country.

Her actions sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, propelling Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement into the forefront of national attention. Because Parks was an upstanding citizen with a husband, job and a political conscience, she made an ideal face of the movement.

On December 5, the day of Parks' trial, African Americans, led by the NAACP and other community leaders, united in a massive boycott of Montgomery public buses. Tens of thousands of people abandoned buses and walked, sometimes as far as 20 miles, for a total of 381 days. Besides crippling the transit system, the boycott initiated a federal lawsuit against segregation policies. On November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregation of buses unconstitutional.

After her arrest, Parks lost her job as a seamstress and moved north to Detroit where her brother Sylvester lived. From 1965-1988 she worked as an administrative aide to U.S. Representative John Conyers. She wrote several books, including an autobiography entitled Rosa Parks: My Story. Ten years after the 1977 death of her husband, Parks founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development to empower youth and educate them about civil rights.

Later in life, Parks was bestowed with numerous honorary degrees and national awards, including the NAACP's esteemed Spingarn Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, presented to her in 1996 by President Bill Clinton. A Michigan public act established Rosa Parks Day, celebrated on the first Monday following her February 4 birthday.

Rosa Parks was 92 years old when she died in her Detroit home on October 24, 2005. The front seats of city buses in Detroit and Montgomery were adorned with black ribbons in the days preceding her funeral. Fifty thousand people visited her casket as it rested for two days in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol, the first woman to receive this honor. A seven-hour funeral service was held for her at the Greater Grace Temple Church in Detroit, followed by a procession in which thousands of people came to celebrate one of the bravest and most influential figures of the 20th century. Rosa Parks is buried in Detroit's Woodlawn cemetery.

RELATED ITEMS IN THE COLLECTION
View all items related to Rosa Parks

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Parks, Rosa | Detroit Historical Society

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Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on February 4, 1913. She grew up during a time when segregation dominated most facets of life in the American South.

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*Worked in Detroit for Congressman John Conyers

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*Worked in Detroit for Congressman John Conyers

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1965-1988

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Rosa Parks to Congressman John Conyers, Jr., concerning her request to attend the Coalition of 100 Black Women program, appearance on NBC's Today show, and receipt of the Eleanor Roosevelt Woman of Courage Award, November 6, 1984. Memorandum. Rosa Parks Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (045.00.00)
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Congressman John Conyers, Jr., (D-MI), often joked that more people came to see Rosa Parks in his Detroit office than came to see him. After joining the office's staff, Rosa continued to pursue her civil rights work and traveled around making appearances, attending events, and accepting honors and awards. Congressman Conyers supported these activities. He later remarked, "Having Parks on my staff was the greatest honor of my entire career."

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Staffer of Congressman John Conyers Jr. (D-MI) | Detroit 1957 and Beyond | Explore | Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words | Exhibitions at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress

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Showcases rarely seen materials that offer an intimate view of Rosa Parks and documents her life and activism-creating a rich opportunity for viewers to discover new dimensions to their understanding of this seminal figure. The materials are drawn extensively from the Rosa Parks Collection, a gift to the Library of Congress from the Howard G.

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October 24, 2005

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On December 1,1955, Rosa Parks boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of going to the back of the bus, which was designated for African Americans, she sat in the front. When the bus started to fill up with white passengers, the bus driver asked Parks to move. She refused. Her resistance set in motion one of the largest social movements in history, the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Rosa Louise McCauley was born on February 4th, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. As a child, she went to an industrial school for girls and later enrolled at Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes (present-day Alabama State University). Unfortunately, Parks was forced to withdraw after her grandmother became ill. Growing up in the segregated South, Parks was frequently confronted with racial discrimination and violence. She became active in the Civil Rights Movement at a young age.

Parks married a local barber by the name of Raymond Parks when she was 19. He was actively fighting to end racial injustice. Together the couple worked with many social justice organizations. Eventually, Rosa was elected secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

By the time Parks boarded the bus in 1955, she was an established organizer and leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama. Parks not only showed active resistance by refusing to move she also helped organize and plan the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Many have tried to diminish Parks' role in the boycott by depicting her as a seamstress who simply did not want to move because she was tired. Parks denied the claim and years later revealed her true motivation:

"People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."

Parks courageous act and the subsequent Montgomery Bus Boycott led to the integration of public transportation in Montgomery. Her actions were not without consequence. She was jailed for refusing to give up her seat and lost her job for participating in the boycott.

After the boycott, Parks and her husband moved to Hampton, Virginia and later permanently settled in Detroit, Michigan. Parks work proved to be invaluable in Detroit's Civil Rights Movement. She was an active member of several organizations which worked to end inequality in the city. By 1980, after consistently giving to the movement both financially and physically Parks, now widowed, suffered from financial and health troubles. After almost being evicted from her home, local community members and churches came together to support Parks. On October 24th, 2005, at the age of 92, she died of natural causes leaving behind a rich legacy of resistance against racial discrimination and injustice.

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On December 1,1955, Rosa Parks boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of going to the back of the bus, which was designated for African Americans, she sat in the front. When the bus started to fill up with white passengers, the bus driver asked Parks to move. She refused.