Rosa Louise McCauley Parks

Born Rosa Louise McCauley on Feb. 4, 1913, in Tuskegee to James McCauley, a carpenter, and Leona Edwards McCauley, a teacher. Her father left the family when Rosa was very young. She grew up on a farm with her grandparents, mother, and brother; for most of her adult life she worked as a seamstress. Her mother often advised her to "take advantage of the opportunities, no matter how few they are." 

Her husband, Raymond Parks, was a barber active in black voter registration and other civil rights causes. He died in 1977, the same year her brother, Sylvester, died. She had no children born to her, but she has said, "I consider all children as mine."

Rosa Parks finished high school in 1934. She has received more than two dozen honorary doctorates, including one from Soka University in Tokyo.

In the early 1950s, Parks became active in the American Civil Rights Movement and worked as a secretary for the Montgomery, Alabama branch of the NAACP. Just six months before her arrest, she had attended the Highlander Folk School, an education center for workers' rights and racial equality.

On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Parks, while sitting in the black section of the bus, refused to obey a public bus driver's orders to give up her seat to a white man and move to the back of the bus to make extra seats for whites. Rosa was tired of being treated as a second-class citizen and stood firmly. She was arrested, tried, and convicted for disorderly conduct and for violating a local ordinance.

Afterwards, Parks became an icon of the civil rights movement. At her brother's urging, she moved to Detroit in the early 1960s and served on the staff of U. S. Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan) from 1965 until 1988.

Read more about Rosa Parks:

"The Rosa Parks: My Story" Rosa Parks, Jim Haskins / Paperback / Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers / January 1999

"Rosa Parks: A Penguin Life " Douglas Brinkley / Hardcover / Viking Penguin / March 2000

"I Am Rosa Parks" Rosa Parks,Wil Clay (Illustrator),With Jim Haskins / Paperback / Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers / December 1999

"If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks" Faith Ringgold / Hardcover / Simon & Schuster Children's / October 1999

"A Picture Book of Rosa Parks" David A. Adler,Robert Casilla (Illustrator) / Paperback / Holiday House, Inc. / February 1997

"Rosa Parks" Keith Brandt,Gershom Griffith (Illustrator) / Paperback / Troll Communications L.L.C. / March 1998

"On the Bus with Rosa Parks" Rita Dove / Paperback / Norton,Ww / March 2000

"Dear Mrs. Parks: A Dialogue with Today's Youth" Rosa Parks,Gregory J. Reed / Paperback / Lee & Low Books, Inc. / August 1997

"Rosa Parks" Eloise Greenfield, Gil Ashby (Illustrator) / Paperback / HarperCollins Publishers, Incorporated / August 1995

"Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott" Teresa Noel Celsi / Paperback / Millbrook Press / July 1991

"Young Rosa Parks: Civil Rights Heroine" Anne Benjamin,Ellen Beier (Illustrator) / Paperback / Troll Communications L.L.C. / January 1996

"A Picture Book of Rosa Parks" David A. Adler,Robert Casilla (Illustrator) / Hardcover / Holiday House, Inc. / September 1993

"Rosa Parks: Fight for Freedom " Troll Books,Keith Brandt,Gershom Griffith (Illustrator) / Paperback / Troll Communications L.L.C. / December 1992