rosa parks biography ks1

• Occupation: Civil Rights Activist
• Born: February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama
• Died: October 24, 2005 in Detroit, Michigan
• Best known for: Montgomery Bus Boycott

• Rosa was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
• Rosa often worked as a seamstress when she needed a job or to make some extra money.
• You can visit the actual bus that Rosa Parks sat in at the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan.
• When she lived in Detroit, she worked as a secretary for U.S. Representative John Conyers for many years.
• She wrote an autobiography called Rosa Parks: My Story in 1992.
• Listen to a recorded reading of this page:

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Civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott that eventually ended racial segregation on public transportation.

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Quick Facts

Childhood, family, and education, montgomery bus boycott, life after the bus boycott, outkast song controversy, awards, tributes, and movie, who was rosa parks.

Born in February 1913, Rosa Parks was a civil rights activist whose refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in 1955 led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Her bravery led to nationwide efforts to end racial segregation on public transportation and elsewhere. Parks was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Award by the NAACP, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal. She has been described as the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.” She died in October 2005 at age 92.

FULL NAME: Rosa Louise McCauley Parks BORN: February 4, 1913 DIED: October 24, 2005 BIRTHPLACE: Tuskegee, Alabama SPOUSE: Raymond Parks (1932-1977) ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius

Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her parents, James and Leona McCauley, separated when Parks was 2. Parks’ mother moved the family to Pine Level, Alabama, to live with her parents, Rose and Sylvester Edwards. Both of Rosa’s grandparents were formerly enslaved people and strong advocates for racial equality.

The family lived on the Edwards’ farm, and this is where Rosa spent her youth. She experienced chronic tonsillitis as a child that often left her bedridden. After undergoing a tonsillectomy in the fifth grade, she experienced temporary blindness, but her health improved soon afterward, according to Rosa Parks: A Life in American History by Darryl Mace.

Early in life, Rosa experienced racial discrimination and activism for racial equality. Once, her grandfather Sylvester stood in front of their house with a shotgun while Ku Klux Klan members marched down the street.

Young Rosa often fought back physically against bullying from white children, noting: “As far back as I remember, I could never think in terms of accepting physical abuse without some form of retaliation if possible,” according to The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis.

Taught to read by her mother at a young age, Rosa attended segregated schools throughout her education. The one-room school in Pine Level where she went often lacked adequate school supplies such as desks. Black students were forced to walk to the first through sixth-grade schoolhouse, while the city provided bus transportation as well as a new school building for white students.

At age 11, Rosa began at the Industrial School for Girls in Montgomery, Alabama. She moved onto a laboratory school for secondary education led by the Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes. In 1929, Rosa left the school in the 11 th grade to help both her sick grandmother and mother back in Pine Level.

For a time, she worked at a shirt factory in Montgomery, but Rosa did eventually earn her high school degree in 1933. This was a significant accomplishment for a young Black woman in the mid-1930s, during a time when eight out every 10 Black children of high school age in southern states weren’t even enrolled in secondary schools, according to Rosa Parks: A Biography by Joyce A. Hanson.

In 1932, at age 19, Rosa met and married Raymond Parks, a barber and an active member of the NAACP as well as the League of Women Voters. The couple never had children, and their marriage lasted until his death in 1977.

Raymond was involved with the Montgomery labor rights movement and led a national pledge drive to support the legal defense of the Scottsboro Boys, nine Black teenagers falsely accused in Alabama of raping two white women in 1931. As Rosa’s own interest in civil activism rose, Raymond discouraged her from actively participating in the Scottsboro Boys defense efforts due to the dangers involved. Rosa said her husband believed, “It was hard enough if he had to run... He couldn’t leave me, and I couldn’t run as fast,” according to The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks . She didn’t let that stop her.

After graduating high school with Raymond’s support, Rosa became actively involved in civil rights issues by joining the NAACP’s Montgomery chapter in 1943, serving as its youth leader as well as secretary to NAACP President E.D. Nixon . She held the post until 1957.

During her time at the NAACP, she was involved in investigating the gang rape of Recy Taylor , a Black woman in Henry County, Alabama. Parks also attended meetings to discuss the murder of Emmett Till , a Black teenage who was tortured and lynched after being accused of offending a white woman in Mississippi in 1955.

After a long day’s work at a Montgomery department store, where she worked as a seamstress, Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus for home on December 1, 1955. She took a seat in the first of several rows designated for “colored” passengers.

The Montgomery City Code required that all public transportation be segregated and that bus drivers had the “powers of a police officer of the city while in actual charge of any bus for the purposes of carrying out the provisions” of the code. That meant drivers were required to provide separate but equal accommodations for white and Black passengers by assigning seats. A line roughly in the middle of a bus separated white passengers in the front from Black passengers in the back. When an African American passenger boarded the bus, they had to get on at the front to pay their fare, then get off and reboard the bus at the back door.

As the bus Parks was riding continued on its route, it began to fill with white passengers. Eventually, the bus was full, and driver James F. Blake noticed that several white passengers were standing in the aisle. Blake stopped the bus and moved the sign separating the two sections back one row, asking four Black passengers to give up their seats. The city’s bus ordinance didn’t specifically give drivers the authority to demand a passenger to give up a seat to anyone, regardless of color. However, Montgomery bus drivers had adopted the custom of moving back the sign separating Black and white passengers and, if necessary, asking Black passengers to give up their seats to white passengers. If the Black passenger protested, the bus driver had the authority to refuse service and could call the police to have them removed.

Three of the other Black passengers on the bus complied with the driver, but Parks refused and remained seated. Blake demanded, “Why don’t you stand up?” to which Parks replied, “I don’t think I should have to stand up.” He called the police and had her arrested. Parks later said of the incident : “When that white driver stepped back toward us, when he waved his hand and ordered us up and out of our seats, I felt a determination cover my body like a quilt on a winter night.”

The police arrested Parks at the scene and charged her with violation of Chapter 6, Section 11, of the Montgomery City Code. She was taken to police headquarters, where, later that night, she was released on bail.

Parks’ protest made her the public face of what later became known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott . The evening that Parks was arrested, E.D. Nixon began forming plans to organize a boycott of Montgomery’s city buses. Members of the Black community were asked to stay off city buses on Monday, December 5, 1955—the day of Parks’ trial—in protest of her arrest. People were encouraged to stay home from work or school, take a cab, or walk to work. Ads were placed in local papers, and handbills were printed and distributed in Black neighborhoods.

In fact, Parks wasn’t the first to push back against segregated busing practices. A 15-year-old nurse aid and activist named Claudette Colvin had similarly refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger nine months before Parks had done so, but the NAACP felt Parks was the better candidate to highlight for the public, and so Colvin’s actions remained relatively little-known. Colvin later said she wasn’t publicized because she was a pregnant teen and because Parks was more fair-skinned and had the look that “that people associate with the middle class.”

On the morning of December 5, a group of leaders from the Black community gathered at the Mt. Zion Church in Montgomery to discuss strategies and determined that their boycott effort required a new organization and strong leadership. They formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), electing Montgomery newcomer Martin Luther King Jr. as minister of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. The MIA believed that Parks’ case provided an excellent opportunity to take further action to create real change.

When Parks arrived at the courthouse for trial that morning with her attorney, Fred Gray, she was greeted by a bustling crowd of around 500 local supporters, who rooted her on. Following a 30-minute hearing, Parks was found guilty of violating a local ordinance and was fined $10, as well as a $4 court fee.

Inarguably the biggest event of the day, however, was what Parks’ trial had triggered. The city’s buses were, by and large, empty. Some people carpooled and others rode in Black-operated cabs, but most of the estimated 40,000 African American commuters living in the city at the time had opted to walk to work that day—some as far as 20 miles.

Due to the size and scope of, and loyalty to, the boycott, the effort continued for several months. The city of Montgomery had become a victorious eyesore, with dozens of public buses sitting idle, ultimately severely crippling finances for its transit company. With the boycott’s progress, however, came strong resistance.

Some segregationists retaliated with violence. Black churches were burned, and both King and Nixon’s homes were destroyed by bombings. Still, further attempts were made to end the boycott. The insurance was canceled for the city taxi system that African Americans used. Black citizens were also arrested for violating an antiquated law prohibiting boycotts.

In response, members of the Black community took legal action. Armed with the Brown v. Board of Education decision, which stated that separate but equal policies had no place in public education , a Black legal team took the issue of segregation on public transit systems to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, Northern Division. Parks’ attorney, Fred Gray, filed the suit.

In June 1956, the district court declared racial segregation laws, also known as “Jim Crow laws,” unconstitutional. The city of Montgomery appealed the court’s decision shortly thereafter, but on November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s ruling, declaring segregation on public transport to be unconstitutional.

With the transit company and downtown businesses suffering financial loss and the legal system ruling against them, the city of Montgomery had no choice but to lift its enforcement of segregation on public buses, and the boycott officially ended on December 20, 1956, after 381 days. The combination of legal action, backed by the unrelenting determination of the Black community, made the Montgomery Bus Boycott one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation in history.

Although she had become a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement , Parks suffered hardship in the months following her arrest in Montgomery and the subsequent boycott. She lost her department store job, and her husband was fired from his barber job at Maxwell Air Force Base after his boss forbade him to talk about his wife or their legal case. The couple began receiving constant death threats, and Raymond started sleeping with his gun for protection as a result, according to The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks .

Unable to find work, they eventually left Montgomery and moved to Detroit with Parks’ mother. There, Parks made a new life for herself, working as a secretary and receptionist in U.S. Representative John Conyer’s congressional office. She also served on the board of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Parks remained involved in activism throughout her life, speaking out against housing discrimination and police abuse. She also befriended Malcolm X , considering him her “personal hero.”

In 1987, a decade after her husband’s death, Parks founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development with longtime friend Elaine Eason Steele. The organization runs “Pathways to Freedom” bus tours, introducing young people to important civil rights and Underground Railroad sites throughout the country.

In 1992, Parks published Rosa Parks: My Story , an autobiography recounting her life in the segregated South. In 1995, she published Quiet Strength , which focuses on the role that religious faith played throughout her life.

In 1998, the hip-hop group Outkast released a song, “Rosa Parks,” which peaked at No. 55 on the Billboard Hot 100 music chart the following year. The song featured the chorus: “Ah-ha, hush that fuss. Everybody move to the back of the bus.”

In 1999, Parks filed a lawsuit against the group and its label alleging defamation and false advertising because Outkast used Parks’ name without her permission. Outkast said the song was protected by the First Amendment and didn’t violate Parks’ publicity rights. In 2003, a judge dismissed the defamation claims. Parks’ lawyer soon refiled based on the false advertising claims for using her name without permission, seeking over $5 billion.

On April 14, 2005, the case was settled. Outkast and co-defendants SONY BMG Music Entertainment, Arista Records LLC, and LaFace Records admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to work with the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute to develop educational programs that “enlighten today’s youth about the significant role Rosa Parks played in making America a better place for all races,” according to a statement released at the time.

On October 24, 2005, Parks quietly died in her apartment in Detroit at the age of 92. She had been diagnosed the previous year with progressive dementia, which she had been suffering from since at least 2002.

Parks’ death was marked by several memorial services, among them, lying in honor at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, where an estimated 50,000 people viewed her casket.

Parks was the first woman and only the second Black person—after Jacob Joseph Chestnut, a U.S. Capitol police officer killed in 1998—to lie in the Capitol , which is considered the “most suitable place for the nation to pay final tribute to its most eminent citizens.” City officials in Montgomery and Detroit reserved the front seats of their buses with black ribbons in honor of Parks.

Parks was interred between her husband and mother at Detroit’s Woodlawn Cemetery, in the chapel’s mausoleum. Shortly after her death, the chapel was renamed the Rosa L. Parks Freedom Chapel. Speaking during her funeral, then–Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, “I can honestly say that without Mrs. Parks, I probably would not be standing here today as secretary of state.”

Parks received many accolades during her lifetime, including the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP’s highest award, and the prestigious Martin Luther King Jr. Award. On September 15, 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded Parks the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given by the United States’ executive branch. The following year, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award given by the U.S. legislative branch. Time magazine named Parks on its 1999 list of “The 20 Most Influential People of the 20 th Century.”

In 2000, Troy University created the Rosa Parks Museum , located at the site of her arrest in downtown Montgomery, Alabama. In 2001, the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, consecrated Rosa Parks Circle, a 3.5-acre park designed by architect Maya Lin , who is best known for designing the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington.

A biographical movie starring Angela Bassett and directed by Julie Dash, The Rosa Parks Story , was released in 2002. The movie won the 2003 NAACP Image Award, Christopher Award, and Black Reel Award.

On February 4, 2013—which would have been Parks’ 100th birthday—a commemorative U.S. Postal Service stamp was released called the Rosa Parks Forever stamp, featuring a rendition of the famed activist.

Also in February 2013, President Barack Obama unveiled a statue, designed by Robert Firmin and sculpted by Eugene Daub, honoring Parks in the nation’s Capitol building. He remembered Parks by saying: “In a single moment, with the simplest of gestures, she helped change America and change the world,” Obama said during the dedication ceremony . “And today, she takes her rightful place among those who shaped this nation’s course.”

Watch “Rosa Parks: Mother Of A Movement” on History Vault

• At the time I was arrested, I had no idea it would turn into this. It was just a day like any other day. The only thing that made it significant was that the masses of the people joined in.
• I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.
• People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired... the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.
• Each person must live their life as a model for others.
• I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free... so other people would be also free.
• I’d see the bus pass every day... the bus was among the first ways I realized there was a black and white world.
• When I thought about Emmett Till, I could not go to the back of the bus.
• My only concern was to get home after a hard day’s work.
• The time had just come when I had been pushed as far as I could stand to be pushed.
• I had decided that I would have to know once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen, even in Montgomery, Alabama.
• My resisting being mistreated on the bus did not begin with that particular arrest. I did a lot of walking in Montgomery.
• My desires were to be free as soon as I learned that there had been slavery of human beings.
• As I look back on those days, it’ s just like a dream, and 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.
• God has always given me the strength to say what is right.
• There were times when it would have been easy to fall apart or to go in the opposite direction, but somehow, I felt that if I took one more step, someone would come along to join me.
• When I made that decision [to refuse to surrender my seat] , I knew I had the strength of my ancestors behind me.
• I am always very respectful and very much in awe of the presence of Septima Clark , because her life story makes the effort that I have made very minute. I only hope that there is a possible chance that some of her great courage and dignity and wisdom has rubbed off on me.

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• African American Heroes

How her refusal to give up her seat sparked a movement

Rosa Parks stood up for African Americans—by sitting down.

Although Abraham Lincoln ’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation granted slaves their freedom, for many years Black people were discriminated against in much of the United States. In southern states, for instance, most Black children were forced to attend separate schools from white kids in classrooms that were often rundown, with outdated books. African Americans also couldn’t eat at the same restaurants as white people and had to sit in the back seats of public buses. Segregation—the separation of races—was enforced by local laws.

Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913. On December 1, 1955, she boarded a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama and sat in the middle, where Black passengers in that city were allowed to sit unless a white person wanted the seat. As the bus filled with new riders, the driver told Parks to give up her seat to a white passenger. She refused. The driver called police, and Parks was arrested.

Her arrest sparked a major protest. For more than a year, most Black people in Montgomery stood together and refused to take city buses. (One of the leaders of the boycott was a young local pastor named Martin Luther King, Jr. ) Public vehicles stood idle, and the city lost money. Still, the Montgomery Bus Boycott didn’t end until a 1956 Supreme Court decision ended racial segregation on public transportation throughout the United States.

Parks died on October 24, 2005. But throughout her life, her refusal to give up her seat inspired many others to fight for African-American rights and helped advance the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s.

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ROSA LOUISE PARKS BIOGRAPHY

Rosa Louise Parks was nationally recognized as the “mother of the modern day civil rights movement” in America. Her refusal to surrender her seat to a white male passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama bus, December 1, 1955, triggered a wave of protest December 5, 1955 that reverberated throughout the United States. Her quiet courageous act changed America, its view of black people and redirected the course of history.

Mrs. Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley, February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She was the first child of James and Leona Edwards McCauley. Her brother, Sylvester McCauley, now deceased, was born August 20, 1915. Later, the family moved to Pine Level, Alabama where Rosa was reared and educated in the rural school. When she completed her education in Pine Level at age eleven, her mother, Leona, enrolled her in Montgomery Industrial School for Girls (Miss White’s School for Girls), a private institution. After finishing Miss White’s School, she went on to Alabama State Teacher’s College High School. She, however, was unable to graduate with her class, because of the illness of her grandmother Rose Edwards and later her death.

As Rosa Parks prepared to return to Alabama State Teacher’s College, her mother also became ill, therefore, she continued to take care of their home and care for her mother while her brother, Sylvester, worked outside of the home. She received her high school diploma in 1934, after her marriage to Raymond Parks, December 18, 1932. Raymond, now deceased was born in Wedowee, Alabama, Randolph County, February 12, 1903, received little formal education due to racial segregation. He was a self-educated person with the assistance of his mother, Geri Parks. His immaculate dress and his thorough knowledge of domestic affairs and current events made most think he was college educated. He supported and encouraged Rosa’s desire to complete her formal education.

Mr. Parks was an early activist in the effort to free the “Scottsboro Boys,” a celebrated case in the 1930′s. Together, Raymond and Rosa worked in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP’s) programs. He was an active member and she served as secretary and later youth leader of the local branch. At the time of her arrest, she was preparing for a major youth conference.

After the arrest of Rosa Parks, black people of Montgomery and sympathizers of other races organized and promoted a boycott of the city bus line that lasted 381 days. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was appointed the spokesperson for the Bus Boycott and taught nonviolence to all participants. Contingent with the protest in Montgomery, others took shape throughout the south and the country. They took form as sit-ins, eat-ins, swim-ins, and similar causes. Thousands of courageous people joined the “protest” to demand equal rights for all people.

Mrs. Parks moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1957. In 1964 she became a deaconess in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME).

Congressman John Conyers First Congressional District of Michigan employed Mrs. Parks, from 1965 to 1988. In February, 1987, she co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development with Ms. Elaine Eason Steele in honor of her husband, Raymond (1903-1977). The purpose is to motivate and direct youth not targeted by other programs to achieve their highest potential. Rosa Parks sees the energy of young people as a real force for change. It is among her most treasured themes of human priorities as she speaks to young people of all ages at schools, colleges, and national organizations around the world.

The Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development’s “Pathways to Freedom program, traces the underground railroad into the civil rights movement and beyond. Youth, ages 11 through 17, meet and talk with Mrs. Parks and other national leaders as they participate in educational and historical research throughout the world. They journey primarily by bus as “freedom riders” did in the 1960′s,the theme: “Where have we been? Where are we going?”

As a role model for youth she was stimulated by their enthusiasm to learn as much about her life as possible. A modest person, she always encourages them to research the lives of other contributors to world peace. The Institute and The Rosa Parks Legacy are her legacies to people of good will.

Mrs. Parks received more than forty-three honorary doctorate degrees, including one from SOKA UNIVERSITY, Tokyo Japan, hundreds of plaques, certificates, citations, awards and keys to many cities. Among them are the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal, the UAW’s Social Justice Award, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Non – Violent Peace Prize and the ROSA PARKS PEACE PRIZE in 1994, Stockholm Sweden, to name a few. In September 1996 President William J. Clinton, the forty second President of the United States of America gave Mrs. Parks the MEDAL OF FREEDOM, the highest award given to a civilian citizen.

Published Act no.28 of 1997 designated the first Monday following February 4, as Mrs Rosa Parks’ Day in the state of Michigan, her home state. She is the first living person to be honored with a holiday.

She was voted by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most Influential people of the 20th century. A Museum and Library is being built in her honor, in Montgomery, AL and will open in the fall of the year 2000 (ground breaking April 21, 1998). On September 2, 1998 The Rosa L. Parks Learning Center was dedicated at Botsford Commons, a senior community in Michigan. Through the use of computer technology, youth will mentor seniors on the use of computers. (Mrs. Parks was a member of the first graduating class on November 24, 1998). On September 26, 1998 Mrs. Parks was the recipient of the first International Freedom Conductor’s Award by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

She attended her first “State of the Union Address” in January 1999. Mrs. Parks received a unanimous bipartisan standing ovation when President William Jefferson Clinton acknowledged her. Representative Julia Carson of Indianapolis, Indiana introduced H. R. Bill 573 on February 4, 1999, which would award Mrs. Rosa Parks the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor if it passed the House of Representatives and the Senate by a majority. The bill was passed unanimously in the Senate on April 19, and with one descenting vote in the House of Representatives on April 20. President Clinton signed it into law on May 3, 1999. Mrs. Parks was one of only 250 individuals at the time, including the American Red Cross to receive this honor. President George Washington was the first to receive the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor. President Nelson Mandela is also listed among the select few of world leaders who have received the medal.

In the winter of 2000 Mrs. Parks met Pope John-Paul II in St. Louis, MO and read a statement to him asking for racial healing. She received the NAACP Image Award for Best Supporting Actress in the Television series, TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL, “Black like Monica”. Troy State University at Montgomery opened The Rosa Parks Library and Museum on the site where Mrs. Parks was arrested December 1, 1955. It opened on the 45th Anniversary of her arrest and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

“The Rosa Parks Story” was filmed in Montgomery, Alabama May 2001, an aired February 24, 2002 on the CBS television network. Mrs. Parks continues to receive numerous awards including the very first Lifetime Achievement Award ever given by The Institute for Research on Women & Gender, Stanford University. She received the Gandhi, King, Ikeda award for peace and on October 29, 2003 Mrs. Parks was an International Institute Heritage Hall of fame honoree. On February 4, 2004 Mrs. Parks 91st birthday was celebrated at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. On December 21, 2004 the 49th Anniversary of the Mrs. Parks’ arrest was commemorated with a Civil Rights and Hip-Hop Forum at the Franklin Settlement in Detroit, Michigan.

On February 4, 2005 Mrs. Parks’ 92nd birthday was celebrate at Calvary Baptist Church in Detroit, MI. Students from the Detroit Public Schools did “Willing to be Arrested,” a reenactment of Mrs. Parks arrest. February 6, 2005 Mrs. Parks received the first annual Cardinal Dearden Peace Award at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Detroit, MI. February 19 – 20, composer Hannibal Lokumbe premiered an original symphony “Dear Mrs. Parks.” Mr. Lokumbe did this original work as part of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s ” Classical Roots Series.” The beginning of many events that will commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Mrs. Parks’ arrest December 1, 1955.

Mrs. Parks has written four books, Rosa Parks: My Story: by Rosa Parks with Jim Haskins, Quiet Strength by Rosa Parks with Gregory J. Reed, Dear Mrs. Parks: A Dialogue With Today’s Youth by Rosa Parks with Gregory J, Reed, this book received the NAACP’s Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, (Children’s) in 1996 and her latest book, I AM ROSA PARKS by Rosa Parks with Jim Haskins, for preschoolers.

A quiet exemplification of courage, dignity, and determination; Rosa Parks was a symbol to all to remain free. Rosa Parks made her peaceful transition 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.

• Parks, Rosa. Rosa Parks: My Story. New York: Puffin Books, 1999.
• Theoharis, Jeanne. The Rebellious Life of Mrs.Rosa Parks. New York: Beacon Press, 2014.
• “An Act of Courage, The Arrest Records of Rosa Parks” National Archives, Accessed 23 March 2017. https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/rosa-parks
• PHOTO: Library of Congress

MLA – Norwood, Arlisha. "Rosa Parks." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2017. Date accessed.

Chicago- Norwood, Arlisha. "Rosa Parks." National Women's History Museum. 2017. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/rosa-parks.

• Robinson, Jo Ann. Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robison. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987.
• “Rosa Parks: How I Fought for Civil Rights.” Scholastic Teacher’s Activity Guide. Accessed 23 March 2017.
• “What If: I Don’t Move to the Back of The Bus?” The Henry Ford Foundation : Stories of Innovation, Accessed March 23 2017.

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Rosa Parks - Black History Month

BBC Teach > School Radio > Assemblies > Rosa Parks

SMSC - Festivals - Calendar - Philosophical - Videos - Slideshows - Frameworks - Songs

In short...

Rosa Parks (1913 - 2005); Black History Month; Civil Rights; justice and equality.

Summary: On 1 December 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger, contravening local laws. Parks' actions made her a figurehead of the Civil Rights movement and an inspiration to those fighting for justice and equality.

Resources: The framework to print . This assembly uses a slideshow and a video clip (below). Pause the slideshow after Image 6 to play the video clip.

The video clip is a dramatisation of Rosa Parks' bus journey on 1 December 1955 in the town of Montgomery, Alabama. Parks was making her usual journey returning home from work when she was asked to give up her seat in the section of the bus reserved for black passengers by a white passenger who had boarded and could not find space in the section reserved for whites. Parks refused to give up her seat and was later arrested and charged.

Parks recalled in her autobiography that it had been said she refused to get up 'because she was tired' but that in reality the only tiredness she had felt was being 'tired of giving in'. The dramatisation ends at the moment of her arrest.

Duration: 3' 19"

End of speech: '...we didn't know what to do about it.'

Video questions

• What was the date of Rosa Parks' actions? (1st December 1955)
• Where was Rosa Parks travelling? (She was returning home after work)
• Where did Rosa Parks sit on the bus? (In the seats at the back allocated to black people)
• What happened after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat? (The driver asked her to move; then the police arrived and arrested her)
• What does Rosa Parks say she was 'tired of'? (She says she was tired of 'giving in')

Assembly framework (pdf)

Download / print the framework ready for use

Rosa Parks slideshow

The slideshow is an integral part of the assembly.

Suggested framework

1. Entry music Play your chosen music. You might consider 'We shall overcome' or music from the Southern States of America or a blues track. Display the first image from the slideshow (see 'Key links' above).

2. Introduction The assembly takes the form of a slideshow with text, with a pause after Image 6 to play the video clip. The suggested text is as follows:

• Image 1: America in the 1950s… A land of great wealth…opportunity…freedom… But not for everyone. Because black people living in America at that time were often treated very differently to white people. In many parts of America they were kept apart – they were segregated . Black people couldn’t go to the same schools as white people…
• Image 2: Couldn’t sit in the same cinemas…
• Image 3: Couldn’t drink from the same water fountains…
• Image 4: Couldn’t even sit in the same place on a bus…
• Image 5: Many people - both black and white - knew that segregation wasn’t fair and they protested about it…but little changed.
• Image 6: Then, one day in 1955, a woman called Rosa Parks boarded a bus after work, in a city called Montgomery. What you’ll see now is an actress being Rosa, to tell us what happened on that extraordinary bus journey…

3. The video At this point you have the option to pause the slideshow to play the video. The duration is 3' 19" and the final words are: '...just didn't know what to do about it.'

4. After the video Continue with the final images of the slideshow. The suggested text is as follows:

• Image 7: Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat on the bus - and charged with breaking the law.
• Image 8: But people came to her support - first in Montgomery where she lived…and then all over America. Marches were organised to protest against segregation…marches that grew in to what became known as the Civil Rights Movement - a movement that demanded the same rights for all people.
• Image 9: Rosa Parks became an important figurehead of that movement…because her simple act of defiance inspired others to take a stand against unfairness as well.
• Image 10: The world is a very different place today…but there are still many things that are unfair. If you experience unfairness and wonder what to do, perhaps you - like many others - will remember the story of Rosa Parks and a famous bus journey made long ago…

5. Time to talk After the slideshow you could use the video questions to aid recall of the events. Pupils could turn to a partner to discuss what strikes them as extraordinary about Rosa Parks' story; what words would they use to describe her and her actions; what do they feel we can all learn from Rosa Parks' story?

6. Opportunity to sing If your assembly is to include a song this would be a good time to include it. Suggestions from BBC collections below.

7. Opportunity for reflection We’ve heard today about an extraordinary woman - Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks didn’t know that the 1st of December 1955 was going to be different to any other day…but on that day she decided the time had come…the time to take a stand against the unfairness that she saw around her… Think about a time when you’ve experienced things that seem unfair… How did you feel and what did you do..? Did you have the courage to say anything..? Sometimes it can be difficult to speak out against unfairness…but sometimes all it takes is a single courageous voice to begin to put things right again…

8. Opportunity for prayer Use your usual form of address ('Dear God', 'Lord Jesus' etc) and: Thank you for those people, like Rosa Parks, who have the courage to take a stand. Help each of us to take a stand when we see things around us that are unfair... So that together we can work for a better world.

Suggested songs

You’ve got to move when the Spirit says move, You’ve got to move when the Spirit says move, ‘Cos when the Spirit says move, You’ve got to move when the Spirit, Move when the Spirit says move.

You’ve got to sing when the Spirit says sing, You’ve got to sing when the Spirit says sing, ‘Cos when the Spirit says sing, You’ve got to sing when the Spirit, Sing when the Spirit says sing.

You’ve got to clap when the Spirit says clap, You’ve got to clap when the Spirit says clap, ‘Cos when the Spirit says clap, You’ve got to clap when the Spirit, Clap when the Spirit says clap.

You’ve got to shout when the Spirit says shout, You’ve got to shout when the Spirit says shout, ‘Cos when the Spirit says shout, You’ve got to shout when the Spirit, Shout when the Spirit says shout.

• Work together, not alone, Gather round and share a problem. Work together, hand in hand, Gather round and work things out.

‘Cos together, we can work it out together, We can ride the stormy weather, As long as we’re together we’re strong!

• There’s a setback, don’t despair, Gather round and share your feelings. Why just worry on your own? Gather round and work things out.
• If there’s trouble big or small, Gather round and find an answer. If you stumble there’s a friend, Gather round and work things out.
• Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning. Give me oil in my lamp, I pray. Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning, Keep me burning till the break of day.

Chorus Sing hosanna, sing hosanna, Sing hosanna to the King of Kings! Sing hosanna, sing hosanna, Sing hosanna to the King!

• Give me joy in my heart, keep me singing. Give me joy in my heart, I pray. Give me joy in my heart, keep me singing, Keep me singing till the break of day.
• Give me love in my heart, keep me serving. Give me love in my heart, I pray. Give me love in my heart, keep me serving, Keep me serving till the break of day.
• Give me peace in my heart, keep me resting. Give me peace in my heart, I pray. Give me peace in my heart, keep me resting, Keep me resting till the break of day.

Related links

• This assembly framework to print (pdf)
• Song collection: All about our school (pdf)

Assembly frameworks on related themes

Dr Martin Luther King - 'Dream on'

Fairness; injustice; the rights of minorities; peaceful change; inspirational leaders.

Mary Seacole

Celebrating Mary Seacole; Black History; prejudice; determination; caring for others.

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Watch this educational video for children with a rosa parks biography.

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There are many important figures in American History. During the Civil Rights Movement, one of the most important and endearing figures was Rosa Parks. Watch this video to learn some interesting facts about this famous Civil Rights figure.

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Learn about rosa parks.

February 4th is the birthday of civil rights icon Rosa Parks. Learn more about this inspiring woman with our exciting and engaging planning.

Rosa Parks played a pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott, and her act of defiance became an iconic moment in the Civil Rights movement. Introduce key stage 1 children to this important figure with our cross-curricular topic about activists, and study biographies of Rosa Parks in Year 4 with our English planning focussed around narratives of liberation.

Rosa Parks the Activist - Lesson Planning for KS1

Key stage 1 children learn about the story of Rosa Parks and empathise with her situation; was she just tired? Or was she tired of unfairness? Session one of our activists topic block about Rosa Parks can be used as a standalone lesson to explore the life of this famous activist and understand the global significance of her story.

Alternatively, use it as a jumping off point into an exploration of activism by comparing and contrasting Rosa Parks with Malala Yousafzai and then developing your own classroom campaign against injustice.

Explore our Activists topic block for Key Stage 1 .

Narratives of Liberation - Year 4 English Planning

In our English block about recounts, Year 4 children explore biographies from the civil rights movement. In Units 3 and 4 children read and discuss Who was Rosa Parks? by Yona Zeldis McDonough and Little People, Big dreams: Rosa Parks by Lisbeth Kaiser.

Draw a time line of Rosa Parks’ life and discuss how one event came to define her. Discuss the effectiveness of the boycott. Model the opening of a postcard from a child at the time of the boycott, to a relation or friend, giving a short account of events. Integrated grammar teaching covers apostrophes and paragraphs.

Explore our Narratives of Liberation block for Year 4 .

Explore our cross-curricular topics by choosing your key stage.

Explore our English blocks by selecting a year group. They allow you to tailor your teaching. Adjust the length of time you spend on a genre and what English objectives to focus on. Hamilton’s flexible blocks keep the teacher in control.

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Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela

Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela shared many values and goals, and both cared deeply about youth. Mandela met Parks in Detroit, Michigan, in 1990 when Mr Mandela toured the United States after his release from prison.

To learn more please access the resources below.

In 1950s America black people were treated unfairly. One person who tried to change this was Rosa Parks.  On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was tired of having to give up her bus seat and she said “No” to a white person.  This started the Montgomery bus boycott.  The bus boycott was only meant to last for one day. In the end it lasted over a year, until the law was changed.

The Rosa Parks Story

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was born on February 4, 1913. An African American civil rights activist, she was appropriately named by the United States Senate “the mother of the freedom movement” and “the first lady of civil rights.” The events that filled her life have made her a lasting icon of human rights.

“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.”  – Rosa Parks

Parks’ legacy began in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955, when she refused to obey the demands of a city bus driver, James F. Blake, that she give up her seat in the colored section of the bus to a white passenger due to a scarcity of seats.

“When that white driver stepped back toward us, when he waved his hand and ordered us up and out of our seats, I felt a determination cover my body like a quilt on a winter night.”

“He asked me why I didn't stand up... I told him I didn't think I should have to stand up. So I asked him: 'Why do you push us around?' And he told me, 'I don't know, but the law is the law and you are under arrest.'”  – Rosa Parks.

Parks was charged with violating the Montgomery City code, however she had not actually disobeyed any law. She had been seated in the assigned black section of the bus when asked to give up her seat.

On December 4, 1955, a front page story in the Montgomery Advertiser and announcements at local black churches encouraging people to band together for desegregation catapulted the Montgomery Bus Boycott into what would be one of the most successful movements for desegregation, marking Parks as a symbol of the American Civil Rights movements and changing the lives of many world over.  "I only knew that, as I was being arrested, that it was the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind,"  Parks said.

She worked in collaboration with many other prominent figures of her time, including Martin Luther King, Jr., and Edgar Nixon, president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

In 1965, after the boycott had ended, Parks was hired as the secretary of John Conyers, an African-American U.S. Representative. She was employed by Conyers for 23 years until her retirement. Like many before him, Conyers was touched by Parks, and described her as someone you treated “with deference because she was quiet, so serene – just a very special person.”

Parks was selected as one of the people to meet Nelson Mandela upon his release from prison in 1994. She was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton in 1996 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1997 – the highest Congressional award. She passed away on October 24, 2005, at the age of 92.

Rosa Parks made a vast and intangible impact on the course of black history and human rights. She touched many nations, races, and creeds, and undoubtedly her legacy will affect many generations to come.

“Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.” – Rosa Parks.

Little People, Big Dreams - Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks Story

Little People, Big Dreams - Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela Story

Nelson Mandela

In South Africa white people had more rights than black people. Mandela believed that everybody should be treated the same.  He fought for change, but he was put into prison for 27 years.  When he left prison, Nelson Mandela wasn’t angry. He wanted peace. In 1994, aged 77, Nelson Mandela became the first black President of South Africa.

His negotiations in the early 1990s with South African Pres. F W de Klerk helped end the country’s aparteid system of racial segregation and ushered in a peaceful transition to majority rule. Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993 for their efforts.