On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus
to a white man who wanted it. By this simple act, which today would seem
unremarkable, she set in motion the civil rights movement, which led to the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and ultimately ensured that today all
African Americans must be given equal treatment with whites under the law.
In the first half of this century, Montgomery, Alabama, was totally segregated,
like so many other cities in the South. In this atmosphere Parks and her
brother grew up. They had been brought to Montgomery by their mother, Leona
(Edwards) McCauley, when she and their father separated in 1915. Their father,
James McCauley, went away north and they seldom saw him, but they were made
welcome by their mother's family and passed their childhood among cousins,
uncles, aunts, grandparents, and great-grandparents.
Parks's mother was a schoolteacher, and Parks was taught by her until the age
of eleven, when she went to Montgomery Industrial School for Girls. It was, of
course, an all-black school, as was Booker T. Washington High School, which she
attended briefly. Virtually everything in Montgomery was for "blacks only" or
"whites only," and Parks became used to obeying the segregation laws, though
she found them humiliating.
When Parks was twenty, she married Raymond Parks, a barber, and moved out of
her mother's home. Parks took in sewing and worked at various jobs over the years.
She also became an active member of the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP), working as secretary of the Montgomery chapter.
Parks has been hailed as "the mother of the civil rights movement," but this
was not an easy role for her. Threats and constant phone calls she received
during the boycott caused her husband to have a nervous breakdown, and in 1957
they moved to Detroit, where Parks's brother, Sylvester, lived. There Parks
continued her work as a seamstress, but she had become a public figure and was
often sought out to give talks about civil rights.
On August 30, 1994, people were stunned to learn that the 81 year old Parks
had been assaulted in her home. Joseph Skipper, a young, unemployed African American,
broke into Parks's home, hit her repeatedly, and stole $53 from her.
Despite this assault Rosa perseveres and is as active today as she was
when she refused to give up her seat on that bus so many years ago.
Find out more about Rosa Parks
Home Back Next