(1913–2005), American civil rights activist. Born in Tuskegee, Ala., on Feb. 4, 1913, Rosa McCauley married Raymond Parks (1903–77) in 1932. She worked as a seamstress, among other jobs, and he was a barber. Both were active members of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE (q.v.; NAACP), and in 1943 she became secretary of the NAACP’s Montgomery, Ala., branch.
Montgomery Bus Boycott.
On Dec. 1, 1955, while riding home from work in Montgomery, Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white male passenger and was charged with violating the segregation laws. Her arrest, detention, and conviction—the fine was $10, plus $4 in court costs—sparked a year-long boycott of the bus system by Montgomery’s black community, led by a young Baptist minister, Martin Luther King, Jr. As the boycott continued, the segregation laws were successfully challenged in federal court, and the city’s buses were officially desegregated in December 1956. By that time, however, both she and her husband had lost their jobs and suffered repeated threats and harassment.
Later Career.
In 1957 the Parks family moved to Detroit, Mich., where she remained active in civil rights causes. In 1965 she joined the staff of U.S. Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (1929– ), working as an assistant in his Detroit office until her retirement in 1988. A year earlier, she had founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, a nonprofit organization offering support and career guidance to young blacks.
Sometimes called the mother of America’s civil rights movement, Parks has received numerous honors, including the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal (1979) and the Congressional Gold Medal (1999). Groundbreaking took place in April 1998 for the Rosa Parks Library and Museum of Troy State University Montgomery, located on the spot of her 1955 arrest; the facility opened to the public in December 2000.
Her writings include an autobiography, Rosa Parks: My Story (1992).