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Rosa Parks was born in Tuskeegee, AL, the daughter of farmers who also worked other jubs (carpenter, teacher). She was raised on her grandmother's farm in Pine Level, AL
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Rosa left school at age 16 to care for her ill grandmother.
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Mr. Parks was a barber and an anctive participant in the civil rights movement.
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Became Secretary of the Montgomery, AL chapter of the NAACP (National Advancement of Colored People) by 1943.
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In the mid-1950s, Rosa was working as a seamstress at the Montgormery Fair department store and as a housekeeper for a white couple, Mr. and Mrs Durr.
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Tired of segregation in Montgomery, Alabama (with black-only schools, water fountains, etc.), Rosa refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. There was not much I could do except struggle on. There were times when it would have been easy to fall apart or to go in the opposite direction, but somehow I felt that if I took one more step someone would come along to join me."
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Rosa was arrested and fined $14 and convicted of violating segregation laws.
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Rosa's lawyers used this opportunity to challenge the segregation laws in court.
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Buses in Montgomery were ordered to be desegregated.
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Rosa moved with her husband and mother first to Virginia, then to Detroit, MI to escape persecution by foes in Montgomery.
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Congressman in Detroit.
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from President Clinton
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from President Clinton and top law makers
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at age 92 with no family and no money