Born: 4 February 1913 · Died: 24 October 2005 · Age: 92
African American activist whose refusal to give up her bus seat in Montgomery in 1955 sparked a historic boycott
Did you know?Years before her famous arrest, she worked as a secretary for the local branch of the NAACP in Alabama.
Quick facts
Date of birth4 February 1913
Date of death24 October 2005
Age at death92
NationalityAmerican
BirthplaceTuskegee, United States
Occupationautobiographer, human rights defender, civil rights advocate
Editor's Take:
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus, and America changed. In Montgomery, Alabama, Black passengers had to give up seats to white riders. On 1 December 1955, Parks, a seamstress and experienced activist, said no. She was arrested. Her arrest started the Montgomery Bus Boycott, led by a young Martin Luther King Jr. It lasted 381 days and ended segregation on the city's buses. She is called the mother of the civil rights movement.
Key Milestones
1943: NAACP – secretary
1955: Arrest on a Montgomery bus
1956: Boycott – ends in victory
1996: Medal of Freedom – awarded
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American civil rights activist. She is best known for her 1955 refusal to move from her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in defiance of Jim Crow racial segregation laws, which sparked the Montgomery bus boycott.
