Rosa Louise McCauley Parks

Amanda Davis

Rosa Parks

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. She was an African-American civil rights activist whom the U.S. Congress called "The first lady of civil rights". She was a leader to help the blacks become equal to whites therefore helping the world be a better place.

In 1932, Rosa married Raymond Parks, a barber from Montgomery, at her mother's house. He and Rosa became very involved with the NAACP during their lives together and Rosa became secretary to the president of the organization for a period of time. On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery Alabama, she was arrested for violating segregation laws when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. This resulted in a boycott of the bus system by blacks, with Martin Luther King, Jr. leading the movement and in 1956 segregated seating was challenged in a federal lawsuit. Within a few months bus segregation was ruled unconstitutional, and the buses were officially desegregated in December 1956.

After her arrest, she became an icon of the Civil Rights Movement but suffered hardships as a result. She lost her job at the department store, and her husband quit his job after his boss forbade him to talk about his wife or the legal case. She worked as a seamstress until 1965 when U.S. Representative John Conyers hired her as a secretary and receptionist for his congressional office in Detroit.

In 1976 Detroit renamed 12th Street "Rosa Parks Boulevard." In 1979, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People awarded Parks the Spingarn Medal, its highest honor, and she received the Martin Luther King Jr. Award the next year. She was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1983 for her achievements in civil rights. On September 9, 1996, President Bill Clinton presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given by the U.S. Executive branch.

Rosa resided in Detroit until she died of natural causes at the age of 92 on October 24, 2005. She and her husband never had children. City officials in Montgomery and Detroit announced on October 27, 2005 that the front seats of their city buses would be reserved with black ribbons in honor of Parks until her funeral. On October 28, 2005, the United States House of Representatives approved a resolution passed the previous day by the United States Senate to honor her by allowing her body to lie in honor in the Capitol. She was the first woman and the second black person to lie in honor. The Rosa Parks Transit Center opened in Detroit on July 14, 2009.

Rosa Parks was clearly a courageous woman who took a stand for freedom. Because of her black people can sit anywhere on any bus they want all across America. She is a hero and should always be remembered for her bravery. She certainly has made the world a better

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