Rosa Parks was born in 1913 in Alabama and grew up in poverty. In 1943 she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus, an act of defiance that helped spark the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In 1955 she again refused to give up her seat, leading to her arrest and the 381-day boycott that ended segregation on Montgomery buses. Parks spent her later years advocating for civil rights and founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. She passed away in 2005 at the age of 92.

1. Rosa Parks
By Brittany B.

2. Her Childhood• Born in Tuskegee,
Alabama on February, 4,
1913.
• Inherited her name from
her maternal
grandmother.
• Grew up in a plywood
shanty in poor shape.
• She loved church and
loved to go and sing her
heart out.
• As a child, Rosa got sick
with tonsillitis often, and
she stayed home sick,
unable to swallow without
terrible pain, because they
couldn’t afford a doctor.

3. 12 Years Before
• It was on a November afternoon in 1943.
• Rosa had just got off a hard work day as a
seamstress.
• She was so tired, she just boarded the bus through the
front door, when she was told to enter through the
back.
• The bus driver told her to get off and she stood her
ground.
• He started to physically push her off and she didn’t
want to get hit and got off the bus.

4. The Incident
• She was released from a
hard day of work.
• She paid the dime, for the
fee to ride the bus, and sat
down in a seat in the black
section.
• The third bus stop into her
ride, the bus began to get
full.
• Three white men boarded
the bus but only two got
seats.
• The bus driver immediately
turned around and looked
at Rosa when he saw one
man still standing.
• He demanded that she give
up her seat to the white
man.

5. The Incident (continued)
• The man didn’t want
just one seat, he wanted
four, because he wasn’t
going to sit by no
“colored folk.”
• The bus driver asked her
“Are you gonna stand
up?”
• No was her firm answer
that changed the world.
• She was arrested within
minutes and taken to
the jail.

6. The Boycott
• December 5, 1955
• Bus boycott was released:
• “ We are asking every Negro to stay off the buses
Monday in protest of the arrest and trial. Don’t ride the
buses to work, to town, to school, or anywhere on
Monday.”
• Every citizen but a few refused to ride the bus.
• The boycott lasted for 381 days
• December 10, 1956, all buses were disegregated.

7. The Rosa Parks Organization
• Elaine Eason Steele and Rosa became very good friends
as Rosa aged.
• Elaine catered to her every need.
• Steele had an idea to have Rosa’s everlasting
monument and legacy to live on.
• In 1987 they created, The Rosa and Raymond Parks
Institute for Self-Development
• It motivated children to speak up for what they think is
wrong, and to teach them how to hold themselves with
dignity and honor in their lives.

8. Until Death Do Us Part• October 24, 2005
• Rosa Parks passed away in
her sleep due to natural
causes in her Detroit home.
• It all started with the word:
No
• In her last interview in 2000,
Parks said: “God sat with me
as I remained calm and
determined not to be treated
with any less dignity than any
other citizen.”
• Researchers today have
seemed to find and refurbish
the exact bus that Rosa Parks
changed the world in.
(pictured to the right)