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Rosa Parks was born on February 4th, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama, USA. -
When she was 19 years old, Rosa married a barber called Raymond Parks, who encouraged her to return to high school to earn her education certificate. And that’s just what she did, before beginning work as a seamstress in Montgomery.
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She joined the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, working towards putting an end to discrimination and segregation. But it was on the 1 December 1955 when 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. -
This meant that from 5 December 1955, 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. -
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”.
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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 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.