Take a seat in history with Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks was an African American civil rights activist whom the U.S. Congress later called "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement".
On December 1, 1955, Parks became famous for refusing to obey bus driver James Blake's order to give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. This action of civil disobedience started the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was one of the largest movements against racial segregation. Parks became an icon of the Civil Rights Movement but suffered hardships as a result. She lost her job at a department store, and her husband quit his job after his boss forbade him from talking about his wife or the legal case.
- Feb 4, 1913: Rosa Louise McCauley was born
- 1932: Rosa married Raymond Parks, a barber from Montgomery
- 1943: Parks became active in the Civil Rights Movement, joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, and was elected volunteer secretary to its president, Edgar Nixon
- 1955: Rosa refused to obey bus driver's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger
- 1965-88: She served as secretary and receptionist to African-American U.S. Representative John Conyers.
- 2005: Rosa Parks passed away. The casket was transported to Washington, D.C., and taken aboard a bus similar to the one in which she made her protest, to lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, making her the first woman and second African American ever to receive this honor