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Rosa Parks' quiet, yet defiant refusal to give up her seat to
a white passenger on a Montgomery, Ala. bus, sparked one of the
longest and most influential civil rights protests in the nation's
history -- an effort that eventually led to a Supreme Court decision
that ended segregation on transportation in the United States.
Born Rosa Louise McCauley on Feb. 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Ala.,
she was the daughter of a carpenter and a teacher. At age 2, she
moved to her grandparents' farm in rural Alabama with her mother
and younger brother, Sylvester. It was not long after that Rosa
Parks developed a thirst for education and deep faith in God that
would sustain her for the challenges that would lay head.
 After
attending the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, a private
school founded by liberal northern women in the United States,
Parks continued her education at the Alabama State Teachers College.
She then settled with her husband, Raymond Parks, a barber, in
Montgomery.
Often called the "mother of the civil rights movement,"
Parks was no stranger to trying to defeat what had been known
as the "Jim Crow South." She and her husband worked
for the local Montgomery chapter of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP. She even served as
the organization's secretary and later became an adviser to the
NAACP Youth Council.
Parks also was involved with the Montgomery Voters League, a
group that helped black people pass a test so they could register
to vote.
At the time, segregation laws required blacks to use "colored"
restrooms, water fountains and even separate entrances to restaurants
and buses.
It was customary for black bus patrons in Montgomery to board
the bus and pay their fare to the driver; then exit and re-board
the bus using the back entrance. Sometimes the bus would drive
off before paying customers could make it to the back door.
Black passengers were required to sit on the rear of the bus
behind white passengers.
On Dec. 1, 1955, after a tiring day of work as a seamstress,
Parks would make a decision that would change history. She later
said about that evening, "I did not get on the bus to get
arrested; I got on the bus to go home."
As the bus became overcrowded, the bus driver asked Rosa to give
up her seat for a white passenger, and she refused. The driver
then threatened to call the police and have her arrested. She
replied, "You may go ahead and do so."
 After
being jailed, Parks was granted one phone call and contacted E.D.
Nixon, a prominent member of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP.
Her bail was posted by Clifford Durr, a white lawyer and husband
of the woman who employed Parks as a seamstress. After talking
to her mother and husband, she decided to challenge Montgomery's
laws that segregated public transportation.
Later that night, at a meeting of the Women's Political Council,
35,000 handbills were made and circulated to all black schools
in Montgomery. According to Time magazine, they read: "We
are ... asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest
of the arrest and trial. ... You can afford to stay out of school
for one day. If you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children
and grownups, don't ride the bus at all on Monday. Please stay
off the buses Monday."
Monday came, and so did a strong chance of rain, but blacks in
Montgomery stayed off the buses. Many walked, joined several car
pools, or caught black-operated cabs that stopped at public bus
stops for 10 cents, which was the standard bus fare.
The following day, Parks was found guilty of failure to comply
with a city ordinance and fined $14, which she did not pay. As
a result, the Montgomery Improvement Association was formed. Its
leader was a young minister of Dexter Baptist Church and a relative
newcomer to the city, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The Montgomery Bus boycott lasted 381 days and financially devastated
Montgomery's public transportation system.
Parks' case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, and in November 1956,
the high court ruled that segregation on transportation is unconstitutional.
Montgomery's public transportation system was legally integrated
Dec. 21, 1956.
After losing her job and receiving many death threats, Rosa and
Raymond Parks moved to Detroit in 1957. Rosa Parks got a position
in the office of Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat.
Although Parks never quite became comfortable with the spotlight,
she understood her integral role in the civil rights movement.
"I understand I am a symbol," she wrote. However, "I
am still uncomfortable with the credit given to me for starting
the bus boycott; I would like people to know I was not the only
person involved. I was just one of many who fought for freedom."
Parks' commitment to equality did not end with desegregation
of transportation; she went on to become a vocal opponent of apartheid
in South Africa and the co-founder of the Rosa and Raymond Parks
Institute for Self Development, a nonprofit organization dedicated
to helping youth reach their fullest potential.
In February of 1990, she was honored at Washington's Kennedy
Center on her 77th birthday and would later receive several prestigious
awards, including the Medal of Freedom, presented by then-President
Clinton in 1996. Three years later, she was given the Congressional
Gold Medal of Honor.
 Troy
State University erected the $10 million Rosa Parks Library and
Museum in her honor in December 2000. It features a replica of
the bus where the exchange between Rosa and bus driver took place,
and historic documents loaned by the City of Montgomery.
The bus on which Parks refused to surrender her seat was purchased
in 2001 for $492,000 and is on display at the Henry Ford Museum
in Dearborn, Mich.
In September 1994, Parks was robbed and beaten in her Detroit
apartment. She wrote of the event, "I pray for this young
man and the conditions in our country that have made him this
way. Despite the violence and crime in our society, we should
not let fear overwhelm us. We must remain strong."
She fully recovered from the incident and participated in the
Million Man March in Washington, D.C. in October 1995.
Parks wrote several books, including "Quiet Strength,"
which chronicles her life and the historical day in 1955, as well
as a children's book entitled, "Rosa Parks: My Story."
She died on Oct. 24, 2005 of natural causes at her home in Detroit
at age 92.
-- Compiled for the Online NewsHour
by Andrea James
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