ROSA LEE PARKS
Rosa Lee Parks (1913–2005) was an African American woman who made history in 1955 by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama. Her quiet act of defiance sparked the civil rights movement in the United States. A seamstress by trade, Parks was arrested for breaking a city law that enforced segregated seating on buses. She stayed seated in the middle section when a white passenger wanted her spot, even though the front rows were reserved for whites and the law required Black passengers to move if those seats were full. In response, the Black community organized a yearlong boycott of the Montgomery bus system, led by Martin Luther King Jr., calling for an end to bus segregation. The boycott’s success not only brought national attention to King but also fueled mass protests for civil rights across the country.
Rosa Parks, often called the mother of the modern civil rights movement, won the Spingarn Medal in 1979 for her contributions to the cause. She lost her job after the Montgomery protest and moved to Detroit in 1957. By 1967, she was working for John Conyers, Jr., a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama.
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