Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks
Parks in 1955, with Martin Luther King Jr. in the background
Born	Rosa Louise McCauley (1913-02-04)February 4, 1913 Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S.
Died	October 24, 2005(2005-10-24) (aged 92) Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Resting place	Woodlawn Cemetery, Detroit
Occupation	Civil rights activist
Known for	Montgomery bus boycott
Movement	Civil Rights Movement
Spouse(s)	Raymond Parks (m. 1932; died 1977)
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Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 3, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an African-American civil rights activist. She was called "the mother of the Modern-Day American civil rights movement" and "the mother of the freedom movement".

Parks is best known for what she did in her home town of Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955. While she sat in a seat in the middle of the bus, the bus driver told her to move to the back of the bus so a white passenger could take the seat in the front of the bus and she responded with no. Her refusal to get up led to her arrest but it also inspired many colored people to stand up and fight against racism and discrimination.

During this time, when there were no white seats for white people, black people were told to get up out of their seat. Parks refused to move. She was a member of the local chapter of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Like so many others she was tired of being treated as a lower class person because of the color of her skin.

She was arrested. This led to the Montgomery bus boycott. The boycott lasted 381 days. This caused a change in the law. After that, black people were able to sit wherever they wanted to on the bus. Her refusal to let others treat her differently was an important symbol in the campaign against racial segregation.