Rosa Parks was an African American civil rights activist born in 1913 who refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. Her arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a 381-day boycott of the bus system that ultimately led to the Supreme Court ruling segregation on public buses unconstitutional. Parks went on to work for civil rights and received numerous honors for her pivotal role in launching the modern civil rights movement.

1. Rosa Parks: Mother of the
Modern-Day Civil Rights
Movement
By: Kiani Freeman

2. Who was Rosa Parks?
 Rosa Parks was born on February 4,
1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama to
James McCauley and Leona
McCauley.
 At the age of two, Parks, her brother,
and her mother moved to Pine Level,
Alabama to live with her
grandparents.

3. Who was Rosa Parks?
 At the age of eleven, she began
attending the Montgomery Industrial
School for Girls, which was founded
by women from the northern United
States.
 She then went on to the Alabama
State Teachers College.

4. More about Rosa Parks
 Upon completing Teaching College, she moved
with her husband, civil rights activist Raymond
Parks, to Montgomery.
 Parks and her husband joined the local chapter
of the NAACP. She acted as the secretary from
1943 to 1956. She also worked to help improve
conditions for African Americans.
 (NAACP) = National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People

5. What Rosa did to take a stand
 On Thursday
evening December 1,
1955, after a long
day of work as a
seamstress for a
Montgomery,
Alabama,
department store, 42
year old Rosa Parks
boards a city bus to
go home.

6. What Rosa did to take a stand
 As all black
passengers were
required to do,
she paid her fair
at the front of the
bus and then re-
boarded in the
back of the bus.

7. What Rosa did to take a stand
 The bus became crowded and Rosa
was ordered by the bus driver to
give up her seat to a white
passenger.
 Rosa Parks remained in her seat.
The bus driver again asked her to
move, but she refused.

8. Mrs. Parks’ arrest and the Montgomery
Bus Boycott
 The bus driver called the  Mrs. Parks was found
police and Parks was guilty of disorderly
arrested for not giving up conduct and that led
her seat to a white directly to the famous
passenger. Montgomery Bus Boycott
which lasted 381 days,
which eventually led to
the desegregation of
buses throughout the
United States. This
brought on a new era of
the civil rights movement.

9. Supreme Court Decision
 On December
21, 1956, in
Montgomery,
Alabama, the
Supreme Court
ruled in Rosa
Parks’ favor,
banning
segregation on
city public
transit vehicles.

10. Parks accomplishments
 Parks worked as a receptionist and office
assistant for United States Representative,
John Conyers of Michigan from 1965 to 1988.
 In 1979, Parks won the Spingarn Medal for
her civil rights work.
 Medal of Freedom Award, presented by
President Clinton in 1996
 In 1999, she was awarded the Congressional
Gold Medal of Honor, the highest honor a
civilian can receive in the United States.