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NAME: Rosa Parks
LIFETIME: February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005
WHAT SHE IS KNOWN FOR: Rosa Parks is remembered as the woman who incited the Montgomery Bus Boycott and sped up the Civil Rights Movement. She is known throughout the world for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger.
WHY WE LOVE HER: Parks was the “Mother of the Freedom Movement.” Although she wasn’t the first to refuse to give up her seat to a white passenger, her case had the best chance of challenging Alabama segregation laws. On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks got on the bus and was making her way home from work. When the bus became full, the four African-American passengers sitting in the middle were asked to give up their seats for the white passengers. Three complied, but Parks would not. She said, “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true…No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” She was then arrested for disorderly conduct and found guilty, but she appealed her conviction and formally challenged the legality of racial segregation. Community members organized a bus boycott the day of her trial. Nearly 40,000 African-Americans boycotted the bus system for 381 days. Although she was widely honored for her work, Parks also suffered as a result of her defiance; she was fired from her job and received death threats on a regular basis.
FUN FACT: In 1933, Parks completed her high school education at a time when the less than 7 percent of African-Americans had a diploma because of the Jim Crow laws.
