On October 24 2005 civil rights icon Rosa Parks dies in Detroit Michigan at age 92.
Born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee Alabama to James McCauley and Leona Edwards,a carpenter and a teacher she was also of Cherokee-Creek and Scots-Irish ancestry.After her parents seperated she moved with her mother to Pine Level,just outside Montgomery Alabama.They lived on a farm with her maternal grandparents and younger brother Sylvester.Rosa was home schooled by her mother until age 11,then was enrolled in the Industrial School for Girls in Montgomery.After a short time at the Alabama State Teachers College for Negros she was forced to drop out to care for her grandmother and later her mother.
In 1932 Rosa married Raymond Parks,a barber in Montgomery and a member of the NAACP.At her husbands urging she finished her high school studies in 1933,when less then 7% of black Americans had a high school diploma.In December 1943 Rosa herself joined the NAACP,becoming the secretary of the chapter.In the mid 1940's she worked for a short time at Maxwell AFB and rode to work on an intregated trolley."You might just say Maxwell opened my eyes up" Parks later said.
December 1,1955.
After her work day at Montgomery Fair department store Rosa Parks boards a bus around 6 p.m. for the ride home.She sat in an empty seat in the first row of the *colored* section.As the bus began to fill with white passangers the bus driver,James Blake demanded that Rosa and three other blacks give up their seats to the white men.After refusing to surrender her seat the police are summoned and Mrs. Parks is arrested."People always say that i didn't give up my seat because i was tired,but that isn't true.I was not tired physically,or no more tired then i usually was at the end of a working day.I was not old,although some people have an image of me being old then.I was forty-two.No,the only tired i was,was tired of giving in."
On Sunday,December 4 1955 plans for the Montgomery Bus Boycott are announced at black churchs around the city.An obscure Baptist minister,Dr. Martin Luther King is chosen to lead the boycott.The protest will last 382 days and bring the bus system to its knees.
In 1957 Raymond and Rosa Parks leave Montgomery,unable to find work.After a brief stint in Hampton Virginia they move to Detroit Mich.Rosa works as a seamstress until 1965 when she is hired by Congressman John Conyers and she will retire from that position in 1988.
On September 9 1996 President Clinton presents Mrs. Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.She also recieved honorary doctorates from two dozen univesities worldwide.After her death the House of Representatives passed a resolution allowing her to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotundra,the 31st person to do so since 1852 when the pratice began.She was also the first woman,and the second African-American to lie in state there.
A quite and modest woman of rare courage for her time,and an inspiration to all who yearn for freedom and human dignity.
Born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee Alabama to James McCauley and Leona Edwards,a carpenter and a teacher she was also of Cherokee-Creek and Scots-Irish ancestry.After her parents seperated she moved with her mother to Pine Level,just outside Montgomery Alabama.They lived on a farm with her maternal grandparents and younger brother Sylvester.Rosa was home schooled by her mother until age 11,then was enrolled in the Industrial School for Girls in Montgomery.After a short time at the Alabama State Teachers College for Negros she was forced to drop out to care for her grandmother and later her mother.
In 1932 Rosa married Raymond Parks,a barber in Montgomery and a member of the NAACP.At her husbands urging she finished her high school studies in 1933,when less then 7% of black Americans had a high school diploma.In December 1943 Rosa herself joined the NAACP,becoming the secretary of the chapter.In the mid 1940's she worked for a short time at Maxwell AFB and rode to work on an intregated trolley."You might just say Maxwell opened my eyes up" Parks later said.
December 1,1955.
After her work day at Montgomery Fair department store Rosa Parks boards a bus around 6 p.m. for the ride home.She sat in an empty seat in the first row of the *colored* section.As the bus began to fill with white passangers the bus driver,James Blake demanded that Rosa and three other blacks give up their seats to the white men.After refusing to surrender her seat the police are summoned and Mrs. Parks is arrested."People always say that i didn't give up my seat because i was tired,but that isn't true.I was not tired physically,or no more tired then i usually was at the end of a working day.I was not old,although some people have an image of me being old then.I was forty-two.No,the only tired i was,was tired of giving in."
On Sunday,December 4 1955 plans for the Montgomery Bus Boycott are announced at black churchs around the city.An obscure Baptist minister,Dr. Martin Luther King is chosen to lead the boycott.The protest will last 382 days and bring the bus system to its knees.
In 1957 Raymond and Rosa Parks leave Montgomery,unable to find work.After a brief stint in Hampton Virginia they move to Detroit Mich.Rosa works as a seamstress until 1965 when she is hired by Congressman John Conyers and she will retire from that position in 1988.
On September 9 1996 President Clinton presents Mrs. Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.She also recieved honorary doctorates from two dozen univesities worldwide.After her death the House of Representatives passed a resolution allowing her to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotundra,the 31st person to do so since 1852 when the pratice began.She was also the first woman,and the second African-American to lie in state there.
A quite and modest woman of rare courage for her time,and an inspiration to all who yearn for freedom and human dignity.
