Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4, 1913. She was a civil rights activist who helped launch the Montgomery bus boycott and became one of the most famous people in American history.
On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She was arrested for violating local segregation laws and fined $10 for her crime.
A boycott of Montgomery’s buses began on December 5 when Mrs. Parks’ supporters began boycotting the city’s buses in protest of her arrest. The boycott ended on December 20, 1956 when the United States Supreme Court ruled that Montgomery’s segregation laws on buses were unconstitutional.
Mrs. Parks was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999 for her role in starting the boycott which led to desegregation of public transportation throughout America.
