# data[].attributes.body
I learned that Oprah was born  January 29, 1954 and that she is a Aquarius and I loved the backgrounds and images😊

# data[].attributes.body
Something I learned was that Winfrey had her own 3 companies and was a successful talk show host.
On the other hand, the site looked professional and I like the way it was organized. :D

# data[].attributes.body
i learned that she was famous for being in a white school as a black girl.

# data[].attributes.body
i learn that Obama likes pizza

# data[].attributes.headline
Maya Angelou                            I learned that Maya Angelou was the first African-American woman to get her screenplay made for the film "Georgia, Georgia" in 1972.      

# data[].attributes.subject
Maya Angelou                            I learned that Maya Angelou was the first African-American woman to get her screenplay made for the film "Georgia, Georgia" in 1972.      

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that Ben Carson was the first person ever to separate conjoined twins. I really liked the picture of his medals.

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that louis loved beans and rice :D

# data[].attributes.body
One fact that I learn about Joanna Henry is that she was a famous jazz singer in the 1934.

# data[].attributes.body
One fact I learned about Rihanna is that she in total has one 30 awards. I loved how this google site payed attention to the small details.

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans.

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that Magic Johnson won a gold medal in the Olympics in 1992

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that she fought for rights for black people and women and helped slaves escape slavery. The website was very well done.

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that he taught himself how to play the drums, harmonica, piano, and other instruments all by himself before the age of 12.

This person did a very good job with their project. I loved the facts and picture they put in. I also learned a lot from it.

# data[].attributes.body
One fact that I learned is that his favorite food is Baked Chicken Breasts. I love how the site was so organized and detailed.

# data[].attributes.body
One fact I learned that Kobe Bryant was named after a region in Japan where they get steak such as cattle and wagyu. I love how the google sites was very detailed and organized!  😃

# data[].attributes.body
One thing i learned was Muhammad ali was in a comic and also it was a good project

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that he liked fish. And that he made a lot of money 2.12 million. I liked the baseball background.

# data[].attributes.body
I learned Serena Williams won 27 grand slam titles than any other man or women in the open era.  I loved the images and fact about Serena great job.

# data[].attributes.body
i learned that she has 12 siblings

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that Biles is an amazing athlete. I really liked the pictures in the project and the video was amazing. She likes banana bread just like me!

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that he was a U.S senator before he was the president.
I loved how the theme and color of the site.

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that Jackie Robinson did other things then break the color barrier

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that he was one of the first celebrities' to be arrest for drug possession. Amazing project overall.

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that he hit over 715 hime runs. I like how it was formatted to.

# data[].attributes.body
great project

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that Shanda was in Greys Antomy.

# data[].attributes.body
i loved the theme and pictures you used and the wording.one thing i learned was she was the first black women that went to space.

# data[].attributes.body
I learn that Hank Aaron Broke Babe Ruth's record of 714 Homeruns

# data[].attributes.body
i learned that she was the first african american to have a pilots liscence

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that Whitney Houston released her first album when she was only 22. I love the picture in the cite and I have no critiques.

# data[].attributes.body
I did not know 5 of his kids were from two marriages. I loved the organization and the pictures.

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that Ruby Bridges was the FIRST African American to go to a white school! I loved the layout and the colors of the slides! :)

# data[].attributes.body
Beyoncé is that her favorite makeup is mascara and she is allergic to perfume.

I nerve know that she was allergic to perfume.

# data[].attributes.body
i learned that louis made his own band "louis armstrong and the big five"

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that Coretta plays the violin as a way to protest. I like how you layout your facts!

# data[].attributes.body
I never knew that he was a musician, I always thought since his last name is Armstrong, I thought he was a astronaut, But, It turns out I was wrong so, now I know.

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that Langston Hughes published his first poem on 1926.

# data[].attributes.body
Michael Jordan is the only athlete in the world that is the billionare. I like all the pictures that are in the site.

# data[].attributes.headline
Whitney Houston started singing at 22. The google sites project was neat.

# data[].attributes.subject
Whitney Houston started singing at 22. The google sites project was neat.

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that At the age of 14 Rihanna's parents got divored( Love the Pictures!!!)

# data[].attributes.body
I learn that he played a lots of baseball and once served in the military. The site was very good.

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that he broke the homerun record for  755 homeruns in his career.
Also I really likes the pictures for the home slide and the backround

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that Kobe Bryant´s favorite food was Steak and Chicken

I enjoyed the video of Kobe doing his throw dance!

# data[].attributes.body
Venus Williams was a famous tennis player born during 1980. She was introduced to this sport when she was very young by her father. At the age of 10, she could already serve at 100MPH.

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that Whitney Huston realest her first album at 22 years only . I liked how they worded it and how pretty it look's

# data[].attributes.body
Barack Obama doesn't like ice cream. i liked the design of the website

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that Michelle Obama is a writer and a lawyer, she loves kids and do education ,actives with them she was known for the first lady

Raaela I love how you put so much detail on Michelle Obama its great and had so much information.

# data[].attributes.body
I find Rosa parks interesting. I learned a lot of things I did not know about her. You should hear about her too.

FUN FACTS ABOUT HER
A. Rosa Parks favorite color is pink!
B. Rosa parks loved broccoli!
C. Rosa Parks loved pink rose

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Road to Civil Rights iBook takes readers on a journey through one of the most significant periods in America's history. Travel through the timeline and listen to members of the American Academy of Achievement as they discuss the key events that shaped the future of the country.

What It Takes is an audio podcast produced by the American Academy of Achievement featuring intimate, revealing conversations with influential leaders in the diverse fields of endeavor: public service, science and exploration, sports, technology, business, arts and humanities, and justice.

Two policemen came on the bus, and one asked me if the driver had told me to stand. He wanted to know why I didn't stand, and I told him I didn't think I should have to stand up. I asked him, why did they push us around? He said, I don't know, but the law is the law and you are under arrest.

Most historians date the beginning of the modern civil rights movement in the United States to December 1, 1955. That was the day when an unknown seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. This brave woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested and fined for violating a city ordinance, but her lonely act of defiance began a movement that ended legal segregation in America, and made her an inspiration to freedom-loving people everywhere.

Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama to James McCauley, a carpenter, and Leona McCauley, a teacher. At the age of two she moved to her grandparents' farm in Pine Level, Alabama with her mother and younger brother, Sylvester. At the age of 11 she enrolled in the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, a private school founded by liberal-minded women from the northern United States.

The school's philosophy of self-worth was consistent with Leona McCauley's advice to "take advantage of the opportunities, no matter how few they were." Opportunities were few indeed. "Back then," Mrs. Parks recalled in an interview, "we didn't have any civil rights. It was just a matter of survival, of existing from one day to the next. I remember going to sleep as a girl hearing the Klan ride at night and hearing a lynching and being afraid the house would burn down." In the same interview, she cited her lifelong acquaintance with fear as the reason for her relative fearlessness in deciding to appeal her conviction during the bus boycott. "I didn't have any special fear," she said. "It was more of a relief to know that I wasn't alone." After attending Alabama State Teachers College, the young Rosa settled in Montgomery, with her husband, Raymond Parks. The couple joined the local chapter of the NAACP and worked quietly for many years to improve the lot of African Americans in the segregated South.

"I worked on numerous cases with the NAACP," Mrs. Parks recalled, "but we did not get the publicity. There were cases of flogging, peonage, murder, and rape. We didn't seem to have too many successes. It was more a matter of trying to challenge the powers that be, and to let it be known that we did not wish to continue being second-class citizens."

The bus incident led to the formation of the Montgomery Improvement Association, led by the young pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The association called for a boycott of the city-owned bus company. The boycott lasted 381 days and brought Mrs. Parks, Dr. King, and their cause to the attention of the world. A Supreme Court decision struck down the Montgomery ordinance under which Mrs. Parks had been fined, and outlawed racial segregation on public transportation.

In 1957, Mrs. Parks and her husband moved to Detroit, Michigan, where Mrs. Parks served on the staff of U.S. Representative John Conyers. The Southern Christian Leadership Council established an annual Rosa Parks Freedom Award in her honor.

After the death of her husband in 1977, Mrs. Parks founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. The Institute sponsors an annual summer program for teenagers called Pathways to Freedom. The young people tour the country in buses, under adult supervision, learning the history of their country and of the civil rights movement. President Clinton presented Rosa Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. She received a Congressional Gold Medal in 1999.

When asked if she was happy living in retirement, Rosa Parks replied, "I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day, but I don't think there is any such thing as complete happiness. It pains me that there is still a lot of Klan activity and racism. I think when you say you're happy, you have everything that you need and everything that you want, and nothing more to wish for. I haven't reached that stage yet."

Mrs. Parks spent her last years living quietly in Detroit, where she died in 2005 at the age of 92. After her death, her casket was placed in the rotunda of the United States Capitol for two days, so the nation could pay its respects to the woman whose courage had changed the lives of so many. She was the first woman and the second African American to lie in honor at the Capitol, a distinction usually reserved for Presidents of the United States.

View and listen to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s historic "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on the steps of Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963.

Member of the American Academy of Achievement, poet and best-selling author, Maya Angelou shares her interpretation of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

Inducted in 1995

Rosa Parks, the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement" was one of the most important citizens of the 20th century. Mrs. Parks was a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama when, in December of 1955, she refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. The bus driver had her arrested. She was tried and convicted of violating a local ordinance.

Her act sparked a citywide boycott of the bus system by blacks that lasted more than a year. The boycott raised an unknown clergyman named Martin Luther King, Jr., to national prominence and resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation on city buses. Over the next four decades, she helped make her fellow Americans aware of the history of the civil rights struggle. This pioneer in the struggle for racial equality was the recipient of innumerable honors, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her example remains an inspiration to freedom-loving people everywhere.

In 1955, you refused to give up your seat to a white passenger on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Your act inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the event historians call the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Could you tell us exactly what happened that day?

Keys to success - Courage

Rosa Parks: I was arrested on December 1, 1955 for refusing to stand up on the orders of the bus driver, after the white seats had been occupied in the front. And of course, I was not in the front of the bus as many people have written and spoken that I was - that I got on the bus and took the front seat, but I did not. I took a seat that was just back of where the white people were sitting, in fact, the last seat. A man was next to the window, and I took an aisle seat and there were two women across. We went on undisturbed until about the second or third stop when some white people boarded the bus and left one man standing. And when the driver noticed him standing, he told us to stand up and let him have those seats. He referred to them as front seats. And when the other three people - after some hesitancy - stood up, he wanted to know if I was going to stand up, and I told him I was not. And he told me he would have me arrested. And I told him he may do that. And of course, he did.Two policemen came on the bus and one asked me if the driver had told me to stand and I said, "Yes." And he wanted to know why I didn't stand, and I told him I didn't think I should have to stand up. And then I asked him, why did they push us around? And he said, and I quote him, "I don't know, but the law is the law and you are under arrest." And with that, I got off the bus, under arrest.

Did they take you down to the police station?
Rosa Parks: Yes. A policeman wanted the driver to swear out a warrant, if he was willing, and he told him that he would sign a warrant when he finished his trip and delivered his passengers, and he would come straight down to the City Hall to sign a warrant against me.
Did he do that?
Rosa Parks: Yes, he did.
Did the public response begin immediately?
Rosa Parks: Actually, it began as soon as it was announced.

It was put in the paper that I had been arrested. Mr. E.D. Nixon was the legal redress chairman of the Montgomery branch of the NAACP, and he made a number of calls during the night, called a number of ministers. I was arrested on a Thursday evening, and on Friday evening is when they had the meeting at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King was the pastor. A number of citizens came, and I told them the story and from then on, it became news about my being arrested. My trial was December 5, when they found me guilty. The lawyers Fred Gray and Charles Langford, who represented me, filed an appeal and, of course, I didn't pay any fine. We set a meeting at the Holt Street Baptist Church on the evening of December 5th, because December 5th was the day the people stayed off in large numbers and did not ride the bus.In fact, most of the buses, I think all of them were just about empty with the exception of maybe very, very few people.When they found out that one day's protest had kept people off the bus, it came to a vote and unanimously, it was decided that they would not ride the buses anymore until changes for the better were made.

When you refused to stand up, did you have a sense of anger at having to do it?

Keys to success - Integrity

Rosa Parks: I don't remember feeling that anger, but I did feel determined to take this as an opportunity to let it be known that I did not want to be treated in that manner and that people have endured it far too long. However, I did not have at the moment of my arrest any idea of how the people would react. And since they reacted favorably, I was willing to go with that. We formed what was known as the Montgomery Improvement Association, on the afternoon of December 5th. Dr. Martin Luther King became very prominent in this movement, so he was chosen as a spokesman and the president of the Montgomery Improvement Association.

What are your thoughts when you look back on that time in your life. Any regrets?

As I look back on those days, it's just like a dream. The only thing that bothered me was that we waited so long to make this protest and to let it be known wherever we go that all of us should be free and equal and have all opportunities that others should have.

What personal characteristics do you think are most important to accomplish something?
Rosa Parks: I think it's important to believe in yourself and when you feel like you have the right idea, to stay with it. And of course, it all depends upon the cooperation of the people around. People were very cooperative in getting off the buses. And from that, of course, we went on to other things. I, along with Mrs. Field, who was here with me, organized the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. Raymond, my husband-he is now deceased-was another person who inspired me, because he believed in freedom and equality himself.
You were married during the bus incident.
Rosa Parks: Yes, I was.
How old were you?
Rosa Parks: When I was arrested, I was 42 years old. There were so many needs for us to continue to work for freedom, because I didn't think that we should have to be treated in the way we were, just for the sake of white supremacy, because it was designed to make them feel superior, and us feel inferior. That was the whole plan of racially enforced segregation.
What was it like in Montgomery when you were growing up?

Keys to success - Courage

Rosa Parks: Back in Montgomery during my growing up there, it was completely legally enforced racial segregation, and of course, I struggled against it for a long time.I felt that it was not right to be deprived of freedom when we were living in the Home of the Brave and Land of the Free.Of course, when I refused to stand up, on the orders of the bus driver, for a white passenger to take the seat, and I was not sitting in the front of the bus, as so many people have said, and neither was my feet hurting, as many people have said. But I made up my mind that I would not give in any longer to legally-imposed racial segregation and of course my arrest brought about the protests for more than a year.And in doing so, Dr. Martin Luther King became prominent because he was the leader of our protests along with many other people.And I'm very glad that this experience I had then brought about a movement that triggered across the United States and in other places.

What people inspired you as a child?
Rosa Parks: My family, I would say, my mother, and my maternal grandparents. I grew up with them. My mother was a teacher in a little school, and she believed in freedom and equality for people, and did not have the notion that we were supposed to live as we did, under legally enforced racial segregation. She didn't believe in it.
How did she impart that to you?
Rosa Parks: Just by her attitude and the way she talked. We were human beings and we should be treated as such.
She instilled that feeling in you.
Rosa Parks: It was just the way I grew up. Yes, she did. Of course, my grandfather had the same ideas, as well as my grandmother.
What was their background?
Rosa Parks: Both of them were born before the emancipation, before slavery ended. And they suffered a lot, as children they were in slavery and of course, after slavery was not that much better, but I guess it was some better. They were farmers in a rural area in Alabama.
They must have suffered.
Rosa Parks: Yes, especially my grandfather.
Was there a teacher that influenced you?
Rosa Parks: My mother was a teacher and I went to the same school where she was teaching. My very first teacher was Miss Sally Hill, and I liked her very much. In fact, I liked school when I was very young, in spite of the fact that it was a one-room school for students all ages, from the very young to teens, as long as they went to school. It was only a short term for us, five months every year, instead of the regular nine months every year.
You still flourished in this school, despite all that.
Rosa Parks: I liked to read books anyway, and my mother taught me to read even before I began school.
What books did you like to read?
Rosa Parks: Mostly the little stories that they had in the school books, and fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood, and those stories, just what they had for young children.
Do you think reading is important?
Rosa Parks: Yes, it's very important. And I always liked to read, especially historic books. I still do like to read.
What would you like to tell us about your life since the bus boycott?
Rosa Parks: I would have to take longer than a minute to give my whole synopsis of my life, but I want to let you know that all of us should be free and equal and have equal opportunity and that is what I'm trying to instill and encourage and inspire young people to reach their highest potential.
Tell us about the goals of the Parks Institute.
Rosa Parks: We work with young people, from the ages of 11 to 17. Our main program is the Pathways to Freedom. And we'll be going from Memphis, Tennessee through ten other states, and Washington, DC, and to Canada. It began July 13th and ends August 8th. We hope to take as many young people and their chaperons as possible throughout these areas, and stop and have workshops and programs. They'll be traveling in buses, and we hope that will inspire and give them a sense of history and also to encourage them to be concerned about their self and history and motivated to reach their highest potential. We always encourage them to have a spiritual awareness, because I feel that with the spirit within and our belief in ourselves and our faith in God that we will overcome many obstacles that we could not with negative attitudes. I want to always be concerned with being positive, and them being positive and believing in themselves, and believing that they should be good citizens and an asset to our country and for the world. And I believe in peace too, and not violence.
What has the American Dream meant to you?
Rosa Parks: I think the American Dream should be to have a good life, and to live well, and to be a good citizen. I think that should apply to all of us. That it is the land of the free and the home of the brave, and I believe it should be just that for all people. Who can think of themselves as human beings and that they will enjoy the blessings of the freedom of this country.
Are we moving as quickly as you might like in that direction?
Rosa Parks: We still have a long way to go, we still have many obstacles and many challenges to face. It's far from perfect, and it may never be, but I think as long as we do the best we can to improve conditions, then people will be benefited.
You don't get negative about the negative things.
Rosa Parks: No, I don't. I try to not think of those things that we cannot control, but I think if we continue to work with positive attitudes, conditions will be better for more people.
Tell me about your husband.
Rosa Parks: He believed in freedom and equality and all the things that would improve conditions.
He was an inspiration to you.
Rosa Parks: Yes, he was.
When did he die?
Rosa Parks: In August of 1977.
What advice would you give to a young person who wants to make a difference?
Rosa Parks: The advice I would give any young person is, first of all, to rid themselves of prejudice against other people and to be concerned about what they can do to help others. And of course, to get a good education, and take advantage of the opportunities that they have. In fact, there are more opportunities today than when I was young. And whatever they do, to think positively and be concerned about other people, to think in terms of them being able to not succumb to many of the temptations, especially the use of drugs and substances that will destroy the physical health, as well as mental health.
What would you say to a kid who's in trouble now?
Rosa Parks: The reason we start with them so young is to try to get them a good family life, before they get into that area. Of course there are those who maybe have strayed away, and I would certainly advise them to find some means of helping themselves, even if they've gotten into some problems.
Family is important to you.
Rosa Parks: Yes, it is, very important. Of course, we have so many broken homes now. Young people need some means of being encouraged and to try to find some role models, people in school, in church, and other organizations. They need to be organized to work together, instead of being so scattered about and not having any positive outlook on life.
Did you feel Dr. King had a special gift?
Rosa Parks: Well, when I first met him it was before I was arrested. I met him in August of 1955, when he came to be the guest speaker at an NAACP meeting and I was secretary. I was very impressed with his delivery as a speaker and, of course, his genuine friendliness as a person. And his attitude, of course, was to work and do whatever he could in the community for the church to make a difference in the way of life we had at that time. And I was really impressed by his leadership, because he seemed to be a very genuine and very concerned person, and, I thought, a real Christian.
Did it surprise you when he became a national hero?
Rosa Parks: No, not really, because I just felt that he filled the position so well. He was the type of person that people really gravitated towards and they seemed to like him personally, as well as his leadership.
A warm person?
Rosa Parks: Yes, he was.
It has been an honor to sit with you here, today. Thank you so much for spending this time with us, Mrs. Parks.
Rosa Parks: Thank you.

Most historians date the beginning of the modern civil rights movement in the United States to December 1, 1955. That was the day when an unknown seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. This brave woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested and fined for violating a city ordinance, but her lonely act of defiance began a movement that ended legal segregation in America, and made her an inspiration to freedom-loving people everywhere.

Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama to James McCauley, a carpenter, and Leona McCauley, a teacher. At the age of two she moved to her grandparents' farm in Pine Level, Alabama with her mother and younger brother, Sylvester. At the age of 11 she enrolled in the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, a private school founded by liberal-minded women from the northern United States.

The school's philosophy of self-worth was consistent with Leona McCauley's advice to "take advantage of the opportunities, no matter how few they were." Opportunities were few indeed. "Back then," Mrs. Parks recalled in an interview, "we didn't have any civil rights. It was just a matter of survival, of existing from one day to the next. I remember going to sleep as a girl hearing the Klan ride at night and hearing a lynching and being afraid the house would burn down." In the same interview, she cited her lifelong acquaintance with fear as the reason for her relative fearlessness in deciding to appeal her conviction during the bus boycott. "I didn't have any special fear," she said. "It was more of a relief to know that I wasn't alone." After attending Alabama State Teachers College, the young Rosa settled in Montgomery, with her husband, Raymond Parks. The couple joined the local chapter of the NAACP and worked quietly for many years to improve the lot of African Americans in the segregated South.

"I worked on numerous cases with the NAACP," Mrs. Parks recalled, "but we did not get the publicity. There were cases of flogging, peonage, murder, and rape. We didn't seem to have too many successes. It was more a matter of trying to challenge the powers that be, and to let it be known that we did not wish to continue being second-class citizens."

The bus incident led to the formation of the Montgomery Improvement Association, led by the young pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The association called for a boycott of the city-owned bus company. The boycott lasted 381 days and brought Mrs. Parks, Dr. King, and their cause to the attention of the world. A Supreme Court decision struck down the Montgomery ordinance under which Mrs. Parks had been fined, and outlawed racial segregation on public transportation.

In 1957, Mrs. Parks and her husband moved to Detroit, Michigan, where Mrs. Parks served on the staff of U.S. Representative John Conyers. The Southern Christian Leadership Council established an annual Rosa Parks Freedom Award in her honor.

After the death of her husband in 1977, Mrs. Parks founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. The Institute sponsors an annual summer program for teenagers called Pathways to Freedom. The young people tour the country in buses, under adult supervision, learning the history of their country and of the civil rights movement. President Clinton presented Rosa Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. She received a Congressional Gold Medal in 1999.

When asked if she was happy living in retirement, Rosa Parks replied, "I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day, but I don't think there is any such thing as complete happiness. It pains me that there is still a lot of Klan activity and racism. I think when you say you're happy, you have everything that you need and everything that you want, and nothing more to wish for. I haven't reached that stage yet."

Mrs. Parks spent her last years living quietly in Detroit, where she died in 2005 at the age of 92. After her death, her casket was placed in the rotunda of the United States Capitol for two days, so the nation could pay its respects to the woman whose courage had changed the lives of so many. She was the first woman and the second African American to lie in honor at the Capitol, a distinction usually reserved for Presidents of the United States.

View and listen to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s historic "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on the steps of Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963.

Member of the American Academy of Achievement, poet and best-selling author, Maya Angelou shares her interpretation of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

Rosa Parks, the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement" was one of the most important citizens of the 20th century. Mrs. Parks was a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama when, in December of 1955, she refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. The bus driver had her arrested. She was tried and convicted of violating a local ordinance.

Her act sparked a citywide boycott of the bus system by blacks that lasted more than a year. The boycott raised an unknown clergyman named Martin Luther King, Jr., to national prominence and resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation on city buses. Over the next four decades, she helped make her fellow Americans aware of the history of the civil rights struggle. This pioneer in the struggle for racial equality was the recipient of innumerable honors, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her example remains an inspiration to freedom-loving people everywhere.

In 1955, you refused to give up your seat to a white passenger on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Your act inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the event historians call the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Could you tell us exactly what happened that day?

Keys to success - Courage

Rosa Parks: I was arrested on December 1, 1955 for refusing to stand up on the orders of the bus driver, after the white seats had been occupied in the front. And of course, I was not in the front of the bus as many people have written and spoken that I was - that I got on the bus and took the front seat, but I did not. I took a seat that was just back of where the white people were sitting, in fact, the last seat. A man was next to the window, and I took an aisle seat and there were two women across. We went on undisturbed until about the second or third stop when some white people boarded the bus and left one man standing. And when the driver noticed him standing, he told us to stand up and let him have those seats. He referred to them as front seats. And when the other three people - after some hesitancy - stood up, he wanted to know if I was going to stand up, and I told him I was not. And he told me he would have me arrested. And I told him he may do that. And of course, he did.Two policemen came on the bus and one asked me if the driver had told me to stand and I said, "Yes." And he wanted to know why I didn't stand, and I told him I didn't think I should have to stand up. And then I asked him, why did they push us around? And he said, and I quote him, "I don't know, but the law is the law and you are under arrest." And with that, I got off the bus, under arrest.

Did they take you down to the police station?
Rosa Parks: Yes. A policeman wanted the driver to swear out a warrant, if he was willing, and he told him that he would sign a warrant when he finished his trip and delivered his passengers, and he would come straight down to the City Hall to sign a warrant against me.
Did he do that?
Rosa Parks: Yes, he did.
Did the public response begin immediately?
Rosa Parks: Actually, it began as soon as it was announced.

It was put in the paper that I had been arrested. Mr. E.D. Nixon was the legal redress chairman of the Montgomery branch of the NAACP, and he made a number of calls during the night, called a number of ministers. I was arrested on a Thursday evening, and on Friday evening is when they had the meeting at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King was the pastor. A number of citizens came, and I told them the story and from then on, it became news about my being arrested. My trial was December 5, when they found me guilty. The lawyers Fred Gray and Charles Langford, who represented me, filed an appeal and, of course, I didn't pay any fine. We set a meeting at the Holt Street Baptist Church on the evening of December 5th, because December 5th was the day the people stayed off in large numbers and did not ride the bus.In fact, most of the buses, I think all of them were just about empty with the exception of maybe very, very few people.When they found out that one day's protest had kept people off the bus, it came to a vote and unanimously, it was decided that they would not ride the buses anymore until changes for the better were made.

When you refused to stand up, did you have a sense of anger at having to do it?

Keys to success - Integrity

Rosa Parks: I don't remember feeling that anger, but I did feel determined to take this as an opportunity to let it be known that I did not want to be treated in that manner and that people have endured it far too long. However, I did not have at the moment of my arrest any idea of how the people would react. And since they reacted favorably, I was willing to go with that. We formed what was known as the Montgomery Improvement Association, on the afternoon of December 5th. Dr. Martin Luther King became very prominent in this movement, so he was chosen as a spokesman and the president of the Montgomery Improvement Association.

What are your thoughts when you look back on that time in your life. Any regrets?

As I look back on those days, it's just like a dream. The only thing that bothered me was that we waited so long to make this protest and to let it be known wherever we go that all of us should be free and equal and have all opportunities that others should have.

What personal characteristics do you think are most important to accomplish something?
Rosa Parks: I think it's important to believe in yourself and when you feel like you have the right idea, to stay with it. And of course, it all depends upon the cooperation of the people around. People were very cooperative in getting off the buses. And from that, of course, we went on to other things. I, along with Mrs. Field, who was here with me, organized the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. Raymond, my husband-he is now deceased-was another person who inspired me, because he believed in freedom and equality himself.
You were married during the bus incident.
Rosa Parks: Yes, I was.
How old were you?
Rosa Parks: When I was arrested, I was 42 years old. There were so many needs for us to continue to work for freedom, because I didn't think that we should have to be treated in the way we were, just for the sake of white supremacy, because it was designed to make them feel superior, and us feel inferior. That was the whole plan of racially enforced segregation.
What was it like in Montgomery when you were growing up?

Keys to success - Courage

Rosa Parks: Back in Montgomery during my growing up there, it was completely legally enforced racial segregation, and of course, I struggled against it for a long time.I felt that it was not right to be deprived of freedom when we were living in the Home of the Brave and Land of the Free.Of course, when I refused to stand up, on the orders of the bus driver, for a white passenger to take the seat, and I was not sitting in the front of the bus, as so many people have said, and neither was my feet hurting, as many people have said. But I made up my mind that I would not give in any longer to legally-imposed racial segregation and of course my arrest brought about the protests for more than a year.And in doing so, Dr. Martin Luther King became prominent because he was the leader of our protests along with many other people.And I'm very glad that this experience I had then brought about a movement that triggered across the United States and in other places.

What people inspired you as a child?
Rosa Parks: My family, I would say, my mother, and my maternal grandparents. I grew up with them. My mother was a teacher in a little school, and she believed in freedom and equality for people, and did not have the notion that we were supposed to live as we did, under legally enforced racial segregation. She didn't believe in it.
How did she impart that to you?
Rosa Parks: Just by her attitude and the way she talked. We were human beings and we should be treated as such.
She instilled that feeling in you.
Rosa Parks: It was just the way I grew up. Yes, she did. Of course, my grandfather had the same ideas, as well as my grandmother.
What was their background?
Rosa Parks: Both of them were born before the emancipation, before slavery ended. And they suffered a lot, as children they were in slavery and of course, after slavery was not that much better, but I guess it was some better. They were farmers in a rural area in Alabama.
They must have suffered.
Rosa Parks: Yes, especially my grandfather.
Was there a teacher that influenced you?
Rosa Parks: My mother was a teacher and I went to the same school where she was teaching. My very first teacher was Miss Sally Hill, and I liked her very much. In fact, I liked school when I was very young, in spite of the fact that it was a one-room school for students all ages, from the very young to teens, as long as they went to school. It was only a short term for us, five months every year, instead of the regular nine months every year.
You still flourished in this school, despite all that.
Rosa Parks: I liked to read books anyway, and my mother taught me to read even before I began school.
What books did you like to read?
Rosa Parks: Mostly the little stories that they had in the school books, and fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood, and those stories, just what they had for young children.
Do you think reading is important?
Rosa Parks: Yes, it's very important. And I always liked to read, especially historic books. I still do like to read.
What would you like to tell us about your life since the bus boycott?
Rosa Parks: I would have to take longer than a minute to give my whole synopsis of my life, but I want to let you know that all of us should be free and equal and have equal opportunity and that is what I'm trying to instill and encourage and inspire young people to reach their highest potential.
Tell us about the goals of the Parks Institute.
Rosa Parks: We work with young people, from the ages of 11 to 17. Our main program is the Pathways to Freedom. And we'll be going from Memphis, Tennessee through ten other states, and Washington, DC, and to Canada. It began July 13th and ends August 8th. We hope to take as many young people and their chaperons as possible throughout these areas, and stop and have workshops and programs. They'll be traveling in buses, and we hope that will inspire and give them a sense of history and also to encourage them to be concerned about their self and history and motivated to reach their highest potential. We always encourage them to have a spiritual awareness, because I feel that with the spirit within and our belief in ourselves and our faith in God that we will overcome many obstacles that we could not with negative attitudes. I want to always be concerned with being positive, and them being positive and believing in themselves, and believing that they should be good citizens and an asset to our country and for the world. And I believe in peace too, and not violence.
What has the American Dream meant to you?
Rosa Parks: I think the American Dream should be to have a good life, and to live well, and to be a good citizen. I think that should apply to all of us. That it is the land of the free and the home of the brave, and I believe it should be just that for all people. Who can think of themselves as human beings and that they will enjoy the blessings of the freedom of this country.
Are we moving as quickly as you might like in that direction?
Rosa Parks: We still have a long way to go, we still have many obstacles and many challenges to face. It's far from perfect, and it may never be, but I think as long as we do the best we can to improve conditions, then people will be benefited.
You don't get negative about the negative things.
Rosa Parks: No, I don't. I try to not think of those things that we cannot control, but I think if we continue to work with positive attitudes, conditions will be better for more people.
Tell me about your husband.
Rosa Parks: He believed in freedom and equality and all the things that would improve conditions.
He was an inspiration to you.
Rosa Parks: Yes, he was.
When did he die?
Rosa Parks: In August of 1977.
What advice would you give to a young person who wants to make a difference?
Rosa Parks: The advice I would give any young person is, first of all, to rid themselves of prejudice against other people and to be concerned about what they can do to help others. And of course, to get a good education, and take advantage of the opportunities that they have. In fact, there are more opportunities today than when I was young. And whatever they do, to think positively and be concerned about other people, to think in terms of them being able to not succumb to many of the temptations, especially the use of drugs and substances that will destroy the physical health, as well as mental health.
What would you say to a kid who's in trouble now?
Rosa Parks: The reason we start with them so young is to try to get them a good family life, before they get into that area. Of course there are those who maybe have strayed away, and I would certainly advise them to find some means of helping themselves, even if they've gotten into some problems.
Family is important to you.
Rosa Parks: Yes, it is, very important. Of course, we have so many broken homes now. Young people need some means of being encouraged and to try to find some role models, people in school, in church, and other organizations. They need to be organized to work together, instead of being so scattered about and not having any positive outlook on life.
Did you feel Dr. King had a special gift?
Rosa Parks: Well, when I first met him it was before I was arrested. I met him in August of 1955, when he came to be the guest speaker at an NAACP meeting and I was secretary. I was very impressed with his delivery as a speaker and, of course, his genuine friendliness as a person. And his attitude, of course, was to work and do whatever he could in the community for the church to make a difference in the way of life we had at that time. And I was really impressed by his leadership, because he seemed to be a very genuine and very concerned person, and, I thought, a real Christian.
Did it surprise you when he became a national hero?
Rosa Parks: No, not really, because I just felt that he filled the position so well. He was the type of person that people really gravitated towards and they seemed to like him personally, as well as his leadership.
A warm person?
Rosa Parks: Yes, he was.
It has been an honor to sit with you here, today. Thank you so much for spending this time with us, Mrs. Parks.
Rosa Parks: Thank you.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Rosa Parks, the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement" was one of the most important citizens of the 20th century. Mrs. Parks was a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama when, in December of 1955, she refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger.

# data[].attributes.body
1._Was awarded a Grammy Award 12 times!,                                  2._She sold over 100 million records and is the best selling recoding artist ever in history.                  3._Tina Turner had kidney failure so her husband donated a kidney to save her.

# data[].attributes.body
Jack Johnson is an african-american boxing champion
He had a white

# data[].attributes.body
i learned that
joe was nick named brown bomber
And he battled James J. Braddock to become the first black heavyweight champion

# data[].attributes.body
I learnt that his boxing career started from an incident with his bicycle. I thought that the creator had a very neat site with a colorful layout.

# data[].attributes.body
He didn't get a college degree because he went to NBA basketball right away. Also I loved the video it is funny.
Kaylee

# data[].attributes.body
she started  gymnastics when she was only 6 years old. i liked your pictures :)

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that Will Smith acted in Men In Black and he acted in other movies too. I really like this person's pictures and their writing. Lastly there were facts that I didn't know about Will Smith.

# data[].attributes.body
Michael Jackson won 26 American music awards.
40 Billboard rewards .
13 world music awards.
the person but a lot of details of Michael Jackson .

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that Kobe won his 5th NBA final in 2010 and the video was really funny where Kobe was doing a dance. The whole site was great.

# data[].attributes.body
He was an astronaut and physics. He died from the sts-4i18 challenger with seven other astronaut.
He played the saxophone and was an athlete and some games he played iwas basketball, football, and baseball.
The website was great, the reasoning was because, all of the pictures really showed that the way he looked in look in a great perspective.

# data[].attributes.body
Chris Rock's favorite food for breakfast is a bowl of Pineapple. Also the creator of the website did a good job designing it and wording the whole site great.

# data[].attributes.body
I learned that Rihanna released her first albumin 2005 at the age of 16 and that her full name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty. The website was designed really well and it was good.

# data[].attributes.body
Michael Jordan used to wear the number 12 on his jersey. The person that designed the website did a very good job and I learned so much more about this person I never knew before! :)

# data[].attributes.body
I learnt that Harriet Tubman helped free over 200 slaves through a secret underground railroad. I thought the creator had many detailed facts in their google site.