Rosa Parks
1913-2005Civil Rights Activist
Birthplace: Tuskegee, AL
In December 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up a seat in the back of a
municipal bus to a white man. She was arrested, tried, and convicted of
violating an Alabama segregation law. This led to the Montgomery bus boycott
in which African Americans refused to ride city buses. The year-long protest
ushered in Martin Luther King, Jr.as a civil-rights leader. In 1957, Parks
moved to Detroit, where she remained active in the civil-rights movement.
She has been a long-time member of the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP). She was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent
Peace Price and, in 1999, she received the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress's
highest honor.
Web Resources
Interview with Rosa Parks from the Hall of Public Service http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0int-1
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