Rosa Parks (1913- )
Born in Tuskegee, Alabama, Rosa Parks grew up on her grandparents' farm near Montgomery and attended high school and college in the city. She and her husband were both active members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). During a time when public transportation was legally segregated, she was arrested on December 1, 1955, when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. Her actions prompted black church and business leaders to conduct a boycott of the Montgomery bus company, which began December 5, 1956. On December 21 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation on city buses was unconstitutional. Martin Luther King, Jr., the new minister at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, participated in the December 5 meeting, an event which helped launch his civil rights career.
Additional Information Can Be Found At...
Parks, Rosa Louise - Encarta Online Deluxe
Black History Month - Biography - Rosa Parks