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By: History.com Editors

Updated: February 20, 2024 | Original: November 9, 2009

Rosa Parks (1913—2005) helped initiate the civil rights movement in the United States when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955. Her actions inspired the leaders of the local Black community to organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott . Led by a young Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , the boycott lasted more than a year—during which Parks not coincidentally lost her job—and ended only when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional. Over the next half-century, Parks became a nationally recognized symbol of dignity and strength in the struggle to end entrenched racial segregation .

Rosa Parks’ Early Life

Rosa Louise McCauley was born in Tuskegee, Alabama , on February 4, 1913. She moved with her parents, James and Leona McCauley, to Pine Level, Alabama, at age 2 to reside with Leona’s parents. Her brother, Sylvester, was born in 1915, and shortly after that her parents separated.

Did you know? When Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in 1955, it wasn’t the first time she’d clashed with driver James Blake. Parks stepped onto his very crowded bus on a chilly day 12 years earlier, paid her fare at the front, then resisted the rule in place for Black people to disembark and re-enter through the back door. She stood her ground until Blake pulled her coat sleeve, enraged, to demand her cooperation. Parks left the bus rather than give in.

Rosa’s mother was a teacher, and the family valued education. Rosa moved to Montgomery, Alabama, at age 11 and eventually attended high school there, a laboratory school at the Alabama State Teachers’ College for Negroes. She left at 16, early in 11th grade, because she needed to care for her dying grandmother and, shortly thereafter, her chronically ill mother. In 1932, at 19, she married Raymond Parks, a self-educated man 10 years her senior who worked as a barber and was a long-time member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ). He supported Rosa in her efforts to earn her high-school diploma, which she ultimately did the following year.

Rosa Parks: Roots of Activism

Raymond and Rosa, who worked as a seamstress, became respected members of Montgomery’s large African American community. Co-existing with white people in a city governed by “ Jim Crow ” (segregation) laws, however, was fraught with daily frustrations: Black people could attend only certain (inferior) schools, could drink only from specified water fountains and could borrow books only from the “Black” library, among other restrictions.

Although Raymond had previously discouraged her out of fear for her safety, in December 1943, Rosa also joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP and became chapter secretary . She worked closely with chapter president Edgar Daniel (E.D.) Nixon. Nixon was a railroad porter known in the city as an advocate for Black people who wanted to register to vote, and also as president of the local branch of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters union .

December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks Is Arrested

On Thursday, December 1, 1955, the 42-year-old Rosa Parks was commuting home from a long day of work at the Montgomery Fair department store by bus. Black residents of Montgomery often avoided municipal buses if possible because they found the Negroes-in-back policy so demeaning. Nonetheless, 70 percent or more riders on a typical day were Black, and on this day Rosa Parks was one of them.

Segregation was written into law; the front of a Montgomery bus was reserved for white citizens, and the seats behind them for Black citizens. However, it was only by custom that bus drivers had the authority to ask a Black person to give up a seat for a white rider. There were contradictory Montgomery laws on the books: One said segregation must be enforced, but another, largely ignored, said no person (white or Black) could be asked to give up a seat even if there were no other seat on the bus available.

Nonetheless, at one point on the route, a white man had no seat because all the seats in the designated “white” section were taken. So the driver told the riders in the four seats of the first row of the “colored” section to stand, in effect adding another row to the “white” section. The three others obeyed. Parks did not.

“People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired,” wrote Parks in her autobiography, “but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically… No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

Eventually, two police officers approached the stopped bus, assessed the situation and placed Parks in custody.

Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Although Parks used her one phone call to contact her husband, word of her arrest had spread quickly and E.D. Nixon was there when Parks was released on bail later that evening. Nixon had hoped for years to find a courageous Black person of unquestioned honesty and integrity to become the plaintiff in a case that might become the test of the validity of segregation laws. Sitting in Parks’ home, Nixon convinced Parks—and her husband and mother—that Parks was that plaintiff. Another idea arose as well: The Black population of Montgomery would boycott the buses on the day of Parks’ trial, Monday, December 5. By midnight, 35,000 flyers were being mimeographed to be sent home with Black schoolchildren, informing their parents of the planned boycott.

On December 5, Parks was found guilty of violating segregation laws, given a suspended sentence and fined $10 plus $4 in court costs. Meanwhile, Black participation in the boycott was much larger than even optimists in the community had anticipated. Nixon and some ministers decided to take advantage of the momentum, forming the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to manage the boycott, and they elected Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.–new to Montgomery and just 26 years old—as the MIA’s president.

As appeals and related lawsuits wended their way through the courts, all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court , the Montgomery Bus Boycott engendered anger in much of Montgomery’s white population as well as some violence, and Nixon’s and Dr. King’s homes were bombed . The violence didn’t deter the boycotters or their leaders, however, and the drama in Montgomery continued to gain attention from the national and international press.

On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional; the boycott ended December 20, a day after the Court’s written order arrived in Montgomery. Parks—who had lost her job and experienced harassment all year—became known as “the mother of the civil rights movement.”

Rosa Parks's Life After the Boycott

Facing continued harassment and threats in the wake of the boycott, Parks, along with her husband and mother, eventually decided to move to Detroit, where Parks’ brother resided. Parks became an administrative aide in the Detroit office of Congressman John Conyers Jr. in 1965, a post she held until her 1988 retirement. Her husband, brother and mother all died of cancer between 1977 and 1979. In 1987, she co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, to serve Detroit’s youth.

In the years following her retirement, she traveled to lend her support to civil-rights events and causes and wrote an autobiography, Rosa Parks: My Story . In 1999, Parks was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor the United States bestows on a civilian. (Other recipients have included George Washington , Thomas Edison , Betty Ford and Mother Teresa.) When she died at age 92 on October 24, 2005, she became the first woman in the nation’s history to lie in honor at the U.S. Capitol.

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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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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.

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?

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?

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?

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.

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Biography of Rosa Parks, Civil Rights Pioneer

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Rosa Parks (February 4, 1913–October 24, 2005) was a civil rights activist in Alabama when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white person: her case touched off the Montgomery Bus Boycott and was a significant milestone in forcing the Supreme Court to end segregation. She once said, "When people made up their minds that they wanted to be free and took action, then there was change. But they couldn't rest on just that change. It has to continue." Parks' words encapsulate her work as a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement .

• Known For : Civil rights activist in the American south of 1950s and 1960s
• Born : February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama
• Parents : James and Leona Edwards McCauley 
• Died : October 24, 2005 in Detroit, Michigan
• Education : Alabama State Teacher's College for Negroes
• Spouse : Raymond Parks
• Children : None

Rosa Louise McCauley was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her mother Leona Edwards was a teacher and her father James McCauley was a carpenter.

Early in Parks' childhood, she moved to Pine Level, right outside the state capital of Montgomery. Parks was a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) and attended primary school until the age of 11.

Parks walked to school every day and realized the disparity between Black and white children. In her biography, Parks recalled, "I'd see the bus pass every day. But to me, that was a way of life; we had no choice but to accept what was the custom. The bus was among the first ways I realized there was a Black world and white world."

Education and Family

Parks continued her education at the Alabama State Teacher's College for Negroes for Secondary Education. However, after a few semesters, Parks returned home to care for her ailing mother and grandmother.

In 1932, Parks married Raymond Parks, a barber and a member of the NAACP. Parks became involved in the NAACP through her husband, helping to raise money for the Scottsboro Boys . In the daytime, Parks worked as a maid and hospital aide before finally receiving her high school diploma in 1933.

Civil Rights Movement

In 1943, Parks became even more involved in the Civil Rights Movement and was elected secretary of the NAACP. Of this experience, Parks said, "I was the only woman there, and they needed a secretary, and I was too timid to say no." The following year, Parks used her role as secretary to research the gang rape of Recy Taylor. As a result, other local activist established the "Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor." Through the help of newspapers such as The Chicago Defender, the incident received national attention.

While working for a liberal white couple, Parks was encouraged to attend the Highlander Folk School, a center for activism in worker's rights and social equality.

Following her education at this school, Parks attended a meeting in Montgomery address the Emmitt Till case. At the end of the meeting, it was decided that African-Americans needed to do more to fight for their rights.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

It was a few weeks before Christmas in 1955 when Rosa Parks boarded a bus after working as a seamstress. Taking a seat in the "colored" section of the bus, Parks was asked by a white man to get up and move so that he could sit. Parks refused. As a result, the police were called and Parks was arrested.

Parks' refusal to move her seat ignited the Montgomery Bus Boycott , a protest that lasted 381 days and pushed Martin Luther King Jr. into the national spotlight. Throughout the boycott, King referred to Parks as "the great fuse that led to the modern stride toward freedom."

Parks was not the first woman to refuse to give up her seat on a public bus. In 1945, Irene Morgan was arrested for the same act. And several months before Parks, Sarah Louise Keys and Claudette Covin committed the same transgression. However, NAACP leaders argued that Parks—with her long history as a local activist—would be able to see a court challenge through. As a result, Parks was considered an iconic figure in the Civil Rights Movement and the fight against racism and segregation in the United States.

Following the Boycott

Although Parks' courage allowed her to become a symbol of the growing movement, she and her husband suffered severely. Park was fired from her job at the local department store. No longer feeling safe in Montgomery, the Parks moved to Detroit as part of the Great Migration .

While living in Detroit, Parks served as secretary for U.S. Representative John Conyers from 1965 to 1969.

Following her retirement from Conyers' office, Parks devoted her time to documenting and continuing to support the civil rights work she had begun in the 1950s. In 1979, Parks received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. In 1987, the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development was incorporated by Parks and long-time friend Elaine Eason Steele, to teach, support, and encourage leadership and civil rights in young people.

She wrote two books: "Rosa Parks: My Story," in 1992, and "Quiet Strength: The Faith, the Hope and the Heart of a Woman Who Changed a Nation," in 1994. A collection of her letters was published in 1996, called "Dear Mrs. Parks: A Dialogue With Today's Youth." She was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom (in 1996, from President Bill Clinton), the Congressional Gold Medal (in 1999), and many other accolades.

In 2000, the Rosa Parks Museum and Library at Troy State University in Montgomery was opened near where she had been arrested. 

Parks died of natural causes at the age of 92 in her home in Detroit, Michigan on October 24, 2005. She was the first woman and second non-U.S. government official to lie in honor at the Capitol Rotunda.

• " Rosa Parks, civil rights pioneer, dies. " The New York Times , October 25, 2005. 
• Rowbotham, Sheila. " Rosa Parks: Activist whose refusal to give up her bus seat ignited the US civil rights movement ." The Guardian , October 25, 2005.
• Sullivan, Patricia. " Bus Ride Shook a Nation's Conscience ." Washington Post, October 25, 2005. 
• Theoharis, Jeanne. "The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks." Boston: Beacon Press, 2013.
• Quotes From Civil Rights Icon Rosa Parks
• How Rosa Parks Helped Spark the Montgomery Bus Boycott
• Montgomery Bus Boycott Timeline
• Organizations of the Civil Rights Movement
• Civil Rights Movement Timeline From 1951 to 1959
• Biography of Virginia Durr
• Ralph Abernathy: Advisor and Confidante to Martin Luther King Jr.
• Important Cities in Black History
• The Early History of the NAACP: A Timeline
• Black History from 1950–1959
• The Black Struggle for Freedom
• Black History and Women's Timeline: 1950–1959
• Important Black Women in American History
• How Viola Desmond Challenged Segregation in Canada
• Civil Rights Legislation and Supreme Court Cases
• The Jim Crow Era

Rosa Parks’ Life After the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Before she became a nationally admired civil rights icon, Rosa Parks’ life consisted of ups and downs that included struggles to support her family and taking new paths in activism.

Decades would pass before Parks' role in the boycott made her a respected figure across the country; between the bus boycott and widespread recognition for her work, Parks' life encompassed both difficulties and triumphs.

Parks and her husband lost their jobs after the boycott

Soon after the Montgomery bus boycott began, Parks lost her job as a tailor's assistant at the Montgomery Fair department store. Her husband Raymond also had to leave his job as a barber at Maxwell Air Force Base because he'd been ordered not to discuss his wife.

Yet the boycott's conclusion didn't make it easy for either of them to get back to earning a living — Parks was too identified with the protest for her or her husband to land another regular job in Alabama.

Parks had been a dedicated volunteer for the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), a local group that had helped coordinate the boycott, but the organization didn't hire her, nor did any other civil rights group. Despite contributions such as traveling to give talks about the boycott to raise funds for the MIA and the NAACP , male leadership did not identify with Parks' needs.

There was also jealousy among locals over the amount of attention Parks had received. In the end, she decided her only choice was to leave Alabama with her husband and mother.

READ MORE: Rosa Parks: Timeline of Her Life, Montgomery Bus Boycott and Death

Her family moved to Detroit, hoping to find work

In 1957, Parks and her family went to Detroit, where her brother and cousin lived. Unfortunately, finding work there still wasn't easy, either. Parks soon headed to Virginia to take a job as a hostess at the Hampton Institute's Holly Tree Inn. But when promised accommodation for her mother and Raymond never came through, Parks returned to Detroit at the end of the 1958 fall semester.

Back in Detroit, Raymond had to go through required training before he could become a barber and Parks could only find piecework sewing jobs. Then she had an operation for an ulcer (a condition that had developed under the stress of the bus boycott), and needed to have a throat tumor removed.

Medical costs and the difficulties of working while ill pushed Parks and her family to the edge. In July 1960, Jet magazine described her as a "tattered rag of her former self — penniless, debt-ridden, ailing with stomach ulcers, and a throat tumor, compressed into two rooms with her husband and mother."

Things finally began to turn around for the Parks family in 1961

Parks had remained involved in the fight for civil rights after moving to Detroit, but she didn't have the college degree required for positions in organizations like the NAACP. And, as in Alabama, no one in the mostly male leadership tried to help her get a job.

Some support came Parks' way, particularly after her problems became more public, and the NAACP ended up paying her hospital bill, which had gone into collection.

By the spring of 1961, her situation was better: Raymond was barbering while she was healthy enough to handle steady work as a seamstress at the Stockton Sewing Company. There she put in 10-hour days and was paid 75 cents for each piece of the aprons and skirts she completed, which added up to enough to live on.

Parks worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X

Having worked with Martin Luther King Jr. on the bus boycott, Parks truly admired the civil rights leader. At the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's annual convention in 1962, she saw a man attack King — and experienced how King made sure the attacker faced no retaliation afterward. Following his assassination in 1968, she traveled to Memphis to support a sanitation workers' march that King had been involved in before proceeding to King's funeral.

Yet Parks also found much to appreciate in Malcolm X 's leadership. Her beliefs more closely aligned with Malcolm's, and differed from King's, on the limits of non-violence.

In a 1967 interview, Parks stated, "If we can protect ourselves against violence it’s not actually violence on our part. That’s just self-protection, trying to keep from being victimized with violence."

She eventually got a job as an assistant to Congressman John Conyers

After moving to Detroit and despite her hardships, Parks remained committed to helping her community. She joined neighborhood groups that focused on everything from schools to voter registration.

In 1964 she volunteered for John Conyers' congressional campaign. The candidate appreciated her support and credited her with getting King Jr. to come to Detroit and provide an endorsement. After Conyers won the election, he hired Parks as a receptionist and assistant for his Detroit office. She started in 1965 and remained until her retirement in 1988.

The job was a boon for Parks' financial situation, as it offered a pension and health insurance. And Parks excelled at work that ranged from aiding homeless constituents to joining Conyers in protesting a General Motors decision to close local plants. Plus her past wasn't forgotten; Conyers once remarked, "Rosa Parks was so famous that people would come by my office to meet her, not me."

Years after the boycott, Parks was still a target

Unfortunately, Parks was not always universally admired. For many white people who wanted to maintain the racist status quo, she'd been a hated figure since the Montgomery bus boycott. During that action, they'd made menacing calls and sent death threats. The attacks had been so venomous that Parks' husband Raymond suffered a nervous breakdown.

Though the boycott had ended in 1956, hateful missives continued to be sent to Parks into the 1970s. She was accused of being traitor and of harboring Communist sympathies. (Racists often felt African Americans were not capable of organizing on their own and had to be getting outside help.)

Even working for Conyers, she remained a target; rotten watermelons and hate mail arrived for her at his office when she started there. Yet, as always, such cruel attacks didn't keep Parks from doing her job.

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The life of Rosa Parks

Learn about this remarkable civil rights activist….

Discover how this remarkable woman helped change the lives of millions of African Americans and the history of her country in our Rosa Parks facts…

All people should be treated equally, right? Regardless of where you come from, what religion you follow, where you work, what language you speak or whether you’re a boy or a girl. Well, sadly, this isn’t always the case, and many groups of people around the world still suffer as a result of prejudices and  discrimination .

Thankfully, there are some amazing people who have done incredible things to fight for equality. One such person was a civil rights activist called Rosa Parks .

Rosa Parks facts

Who was rosa parks.

Full name : Rosa Louise McCauley Parks Born : 4 February 1913 Hometown : Tuskegee, Alabama, USA Occupation : Civil rights activist Died : 24 October 2005 Best known for : The Montgomery Bus Boycott

Rosa was born in the town of Tuskegee in Alabama , a state in southern USA. Her mother was a teacher and her father a carpenter, and she had a little brother called Sylvester. After her parents separated when she was just a little girl, Rosa and Sylvester moved with their mother to Alabama’s capital city, Montgomery .

Rosa loved to learn and studied hard at high school. But, sadly, she had to leave school at 16 to care for her dying grandmother and, shortly after, her very sick mother. When she was 19 years old, Rosa married a barber called Raymond Parks , who encouraged her to return to high school to earn her diploma (an education certificate). And that’s just what she did, before beginning work as a seamstress in Montgomery.

Racial segregation

Life for African Americans like Rosa was hard. At the time, the Southern United States operated under the ‘ Jim Crow laws ’ – a set of laws introduced in the late 19th century that claimed to give African Americans “ separate but equal ” status and treatment. But, in truth, there was no ‘equality’ whatsoever.

Created by white authorities who thought black people’s lives didn’t matter as much as theirs, these laws enforced racial segregation and allowed for discrimination against African Americans – referred to at that time as “colored” people.

The Jim Crow laws were introduced in different ways from state to state, but there was one common goal – to make sure black citizens and white citizens led very separate lives .

Among other things, they had separate schools, churches, libraries, restaurants, toilets, drinking fountains and waiting rooms. In some areas, there were laws banning black people from sports events and even forbidding them to work in the same office as a white person.

African Americans had far fewer rights, too. Racist laws known as ‘ Black Codes ’ restricted them to low-paying jobs and made it incredibly difficult for them to vote. These laws also meant black people could be arrested for small things.

What did Rosa Parks do?

In the face of such racism, Rosa decided to make a stand for what was right. Together with her husband Raymond, she joined the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) , working towards putting an end to discrimination and segregation.

The bus quickly filled up and when a white man boarded, the driver told the African American passengers to give up their seats for him. Whilst the other black passengers obeyed, Rosa did not. The result? Rosa was arrested by the police and fined for breaking segregation laws! But Rosa refused to pay, and argued that it was the law that was wrong , not her behaviour.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott 

On news of Rosa’s arrest, the black citizens of Montgomery came together and agreed to boycott the city’s buses in protest. This meant that from 5 December 1955 (the date of Rosa’s trial), African Americans refused to travel on buses. The boycott was managed by an organisation called the Montgomery Improvement Association , for which  Dr Martin Luther King Jr  was elected as leader.

The protest proved super effective, with more black people participating than had been expected.  And since African Americans made up around 70% of bus users, the city’s transport services made far less money and began to struggle. But it wasn’t an easy protest for the black citizens. Many of them didn’t own cars, and so they had to carpool together or walk long distances to get where they needed to go. What’s more, the boycott was received with anger by members of the white population, who responded with aggressive and dangerous acts of violence.

Nevertheless, the protesters stuck together and fought for their cause – and on 13 November 1956 their efforts were finally rewarded. After 381 days of boycotting the buses, the Supreme Court ruled that Alabama’s racial segregation laws were ‘unconstitutional’ – meaning they weren’t valid and should not be recognised. In light of such a wonderful victory, Rosa became known as “ the mother of the civil rights movement ”.

Rosa Parks’ legacy

Sadly, despite the victory, life wasn’t easy for Rosa and her fellow activists after the boycott. Faced with continued violence and threats by angry white groups, Rosa and Raymond moved to Detroit (a city in the northern US state of Michigan), to live with Rosa’s brother.

There she continued to promote civil rights and help those suffering from discrimination and injustice. She continued to support the NAACP and many civil rights events, and in 1987 she co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development to provide career training for young people in Detroit.

Rosa received numerous awards for her strength, courage and her incredible work for civil rights – including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999 .

When did Rosa Parks die?

Rosa died of natural causes on 24 October 2005 at the age of 92. But she continues to be recognised all over the world as a symbol of freedom and equality . Today, commemorative statues stand (or ‘sit’ we should say!) in her honour, to remind us of her remarkable achievements that should never be forgotten.

What do you think of our Rosa Parks facts? Leave a comment below and let us know!

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Very good facts

Wow! Rosa is amazing and I think everybody should look up to her!

I think she was a very brave woman! And is a guide for all people;)

I am amazing and so is Rosa parks

Wow, this was so interesting to hear I’m very proud of Rosa and we all are!!!

Really useful! Thanks!

[…] Rosa Parks (1913 – 2005) […]

thank you rosa parks you were so inspirational and the you natgeokids for being educational and helping realising life isn't just shortcuts there are also some challenges in life to all the people reading this make sure you don't do what those white police men did unluckily there they're are still some people like them so please make this world a better place [sorry its long]

YOU ARE BRAVE

thank you national geographic! you have helped me do my term project very well.

You helped me so much on my book report

100% for you

i think rosa parks was fer and true to every body and wanted to change the world so wites will treat blacks better so it can be fer and make every body treated the same way and she tryed to prove that it dose not mater what you look like.

This was a good article and I enjoyed it very much.It teaches people to keep their own way.I have 2 kids at home

I think it is amazing I learnt so much from it I wrote a story about Rosa Parks my teacher was amazed you should have infinite money.

wow the story of rosa parks is truely a tale of one woman taking on the government to achieve equality for african americans

very useful for teaching me how to ride a bus

I am now full of facts.GO ROSA PARKS!

[…] Check out more information about Rosa Parks here: Rosa Parks information […]

I think that Rosa parks was a very inspirational woman and that she stood up for her own beliefs as everyone should do. She knew her actions would have consequences but she didn't care, she just did what she believed in and what was right.

Rosa Parks is cooool.

She's so cool

Thanks Rosa Parks

Really inspired me!!!

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ROSA PARKS' BIOGRAPHY

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The Mother of Civil Rights

# Summary: A Biography of Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks, named “The Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement”, was an African-American woman born in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1913. She is most well known for her stand against racial segregation on public buses in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa refused to give up her seat for a white man and was arrested, charged with, and convicted of civil disobedience. Rosa spent most of her life fighting for desegregation, voting rights, and was active in the Civil Rights movement that has shaped social code in the Unites States. No matter what city she lived in, she found a way to stay involved in the community and always seemed to have a way to voice her thoughts and feelings about inequalities in society. Rosa had a knack for doing this effectively, but quietly and was known for her saying, “Do what is right.”

Within the span of her 92 years of life, Rosa has been actively peered by the most influential leaders in black American history. She has been presented with numerous awards for her contribution in forging positive change in a time when social inequality was commonplace.

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