On December 1, 1955Rosa Parks boarded a bus in MontgomeryAlabama. Instead of going to the back of the buswhich was designated for African Americansshe sat in the front. When the bus started to fill up with white passengersthe bus driver asked Parks to move. She refused. Her resistance set in motion one of the largest social movements in historythe Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Rosa Louise McCauley was born on February 4th1913 in TuskegeeAlabama. As a childshe went to an industrial school for girls and later enrolled at Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes (present-day Alabama State University). UnfortunatelyParks was forced to withdraw after her grandmother became ill. Growing up in the segregated SouthParks was frequently confronted with racial discrimination and violence. She became active in the Civil Rights Movement at a young age.

Parks married a local barber by the name of Raymond Parks when she was 19. He was actively fighting to end racial injustice. Together the couple worked with many social justice organizations. EventuallyRosa was elected secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). 

By the time Parks boarded the bus in 1955she was an established organizer and leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama. Parks not only showed active resistance by refusing to move she also helped organize and plan the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Many have tried to diminish Parks’ role in the boycott by depicting her as a seamstress who simply did not want to move because she was tired. Parks denied the claim and years later revealed her true motivation:

“People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tiredbut that isn’t true. I was not tired physicallyor no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not oldalthough some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. Nothe only tired I waswas tired of giving in.”

Parks courageous act and the subsequent Montgomery Bus Boycott led to the integration of public transportation in Montgomery. Her actions were not without consequence. She was jailed for refusing to give up her seat and lost her job for participating in the boycott.

After the boycottParks and her husband moved to HamptonVirginia and later permanently settled in DetroitMichigan. Parks work proved to be invaluable in Detroit’s Civil Rights Movement. She was an active member of several organizations which worked to end inequality in the city. By 1980after consistently giving to the movement both financially and physically Parksnow widowedsuffered from financial and health troubles. After almost being evicted from her homelocal community members and churches came together to support Parks. On October 24th2005at the age of 92she died of natural causes leaving behind a rich legacy of resistance against racial discrimination and injustice.