Civil rights : Rosa PARKS

Rosa Parks (February 4, 1913 to October 24, 2005), a civil rights activist, refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a segregated Montgomery (Montgomery Bus Boycott). After her famous act, Parks lost her job and endured death threats for years to come.

Upon Parks’ death in 2005, she became the first woman to lie in honor at the Capitol Rotunda.  Rosa Parks died in her apartment on October 24, 2005 at the age of 92. She was buried at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit, between her husband and her mother.

The bus driver then proceeded to call the police, who subsequently arrested Rosa. The police arrested Rosa at the scene and charged her with violation. The driver of the bus that day was a man named James Blake. Rosa was arrested for taking her stand. The police charged her with violating the part of the Montgomery City code that dealt with segregation law, even though she had not technically violated the law.

Although she had become a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks suffered hardship in the months following her arrest in Montgomery and the subsequent boycott. In 1992, Rosa published Rosa Parks: “My Story”, an autobiography recounting her life in the segregated South.

In 1995, she published Quiet Strength, which includes her memoirs and focuses on the role that religious faith played throughout her life.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa was working as a seamstress for a local Montgomery department store. The buses, as well as most everything in Montgomery at that time, were segregated. There was a white section and a colored section, designated by a sign which could be move forward or backward by the bus driver, depending on how many whites were riding at that moment. Additionally, if the white section was full, Blacks were required to pay at the front of the bus, but then to exit and go around to the rear door to re-enter the bus.  She was the first woman, the second Black and the first non-government American to ever have this honor and an estimated 50,000 people viewed her body lying in state.

Raymond and Rosa worked in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP’s) programs. He was an active member and she served as secretary andlater youth leader of the local branch.