Parks, Rosa

Pivotal Act of Rebellion

When Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus, she was arrested, and on December 8, 1955, she was found guilty of violating a local ordinance after a mere 30-minute trial. Yet, what initially appeared like a defeat would become a landmark victory for African Americans and the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. The same evening Parks was arrested, the head of the Montgomery NAACP, E.D. Dixon, began to organize a boycott of the bus company. The boycott lasted 381 days and attracted national and international attention. Martin Luther King Jr. was appointed spokesperson for the bus boycott and, thanks to this position, became a prominent leader in the Civil Rights Movement. In spite of white attempts to stop it, the boycott was successful and, as African Americans represented about 70 percent of the ridership, the bus company suffered substantial losses. In addition, a black legal team appealed to the federal court to end segregation on public transportation, using as a precedent the Brown v. Board of Education ruling that had declared segregation in schools unconstitutional. In June 1956, the court outlawed Alabama's racial segregation in public transit. Montgomery appealed, but on November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling.

Rosa Parks, key figure in the Civil Rights Movement, was photographed in 1955 with Dr. Martin Luther King.

The Parks moved to Detroit, Michigan, in 1957, and Rosa worked for Congressman John Conyers from 1965 to 1988. In February 1987, she co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, whose mission is to motivate youth to reach their highest potential. Rosa was awarded with many prestigious prizes and honorary degrees by institutions from all over the world. [Page 969]Parks also served as a member of the Board of Advocates of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. In 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded her with the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, and the following year the state of Michigan designated the first Monday following February 4 as Mrs. Rosa Parks Day, making her the first living person to be honored with a public holiday. Parks died on October 24, 2005, and will always be remembered as the mother of the movement that extended civil rights in the United States.

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