Rosa Parks
Resistance & Human Rights • Historical Archive • 🇺🇸 United States • 10 views

Rosa Parks 🇺🇸

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (Known as "Mother of the Freedom Movement / The First Lady of Civil Rights")
Civil Rights Activist, Seamstress, NAACP Secretary, Human Rights Champion
Born 4 February 1913 🇺🇸 Tuskegee, Alabama, United States
Passed Away 24 October 2005 Detroit, Michigan, United States
Lifespan 92 years old
10 views
Notice / Correction
"People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true... No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in. / I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free... so other people would be also free."

Archival Overview

American civil rights activist whose refusal to surrender her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus in 1955 ignited the Montgomery bus boycott and catalyzed the modern Civil Rights Movement.

Biographical Record

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (1913 – 2005) was an American activist whose quiet defiance triggered a nationwide revolution for racial equality. Long before her famous arrest, Parks served as secretary of the Montgomery branch of the NAACP, investigating racial terror cases and sexual assaults against Black women across Alabama.

On December 1, 1955, after a long workday as a seamstress, Parks refused a bus driver's order to vacate her seat in the 'colored section' for a white passenger in Montgomery. Her arrest sparked the 381-day Montgomery bus boycott led by a young Martin Luther King Jr., which resulted in the 1956 Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation on public transportation. Her quiet courage earned her the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.

Key Life Milestones

1 December 1955

Defiance on Montgomery Bus

Refused to yield her bus seat to a white passenger, sparking the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott.

9 September 1996

Presidential Medal of Freedom

Awarded the nation's highest civilian honour at the White House for her foundational contribution to human rights.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Woodlawn Cemetery (Rosa L. Parks Freedom Chapel)
Detroit, Michigan, United States
GPS: 42.4386, -83.1239
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