Rosa Parks, an American civil rights activist, was born on February 4, 1913. She is best known for her role in sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955.
She was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, and moved to Montgomery when she was nine years old. She attended Alabama State College and graduated with a degree in physical education in 1932. In 1943 she married Raymond Parks and had one child soon after.
In 1955, Mrs. Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white passenger, even though the front seats were reserved for white people only at that time. She was arrested and convicted of violating segregation laws; however, the charges were dropped on appeal because of errors made by police officers during their investigation into her case. This incident sparked national attention and led to 381 days of boycotting buses by black passengers throughout Montgomery City Lines system (later renamed as Capital Transit Company). The boycott ended on December 20th 1956 when United States Supreme Court ruled that Montgomery’s segregation laws were unconstitutional (Browder v City of Montgomery).
In 1957 Mrs Mrs Parks moved to Detroit where she worked.
