Parks

Elaine Greenfield
 * Rosa Parks:**

"Rosa Parks." //Newsmakers //. Detroit: Gale, 2007. //Gale Biography In Context //. Web. 15 Feb. 2012.
 * ** Born: **February 04, 1913 in Tuskegee, United States, Alabama
 * ** Died: **October 24, 2005 in Michigan, Detroit, United States
 * ** Nationality: **American
 * ** Occupation: **Civil rights activist
 * Born Rosa Louise McCauley, February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, AL; died of natural causes, October 24, 2005, in Detroit, MI. Civil rights activist.
 * Rosa Parks was best known for her act of civil disobedience in December of 1955 when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to white man in Montgomery, Alabama. Her arrest led to a Supreme Court decision that segregation on such forms of public transportation was illegal, sparking the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Parks was regarded as a hero and spent the whole of her life as a face of the movement.
 * In 1932, Parks married Raymond Parks, a barber, who was active in the Civil Rights movement. Parks became politically active as well. She was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and was serving as the secretary of the chapter in Montgomery, Alabama, by 1943. As a member of the Montgomery Voters' League, Parks also helped blacks pass the tests needed for them to register to vote. It took her three attempts to pass the test herself.
 * After refusing to give up her seat on that December day coming home from work, Parks was taken into custody and fined $14. She was eventually convicted of violating segregation laws, but did not accept the situation. With the guidance of civil rights lawyers, she helped challenge the laws which allowed such segregation. The incident sparked a 13-month boycott of the buses in Montgomery by African Americans organized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Montgomery Improvement Association. In 1956, the Supreme Court declared this type of segregation illegal. While Parks' arrest and the subsequent case were of importance nationally and historically, the incident and its aftermath had a negative affect on her immediate life. She was dismissed from her job, received threats, and was hassled as were many who supported the bus boycott and the Civil Rights movement. Her health was also negatively affected.
 * In 1987, Parks co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. The group sponsored several programs to educate about the Civil Rights Movement. Despite her fame, she still suffered. In 1994, she was mugged by a 28-year-old man for $53 in her own home. Despite such setbacks, Parks received many honors for her life, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1999.

Huso, Deborah. "Sitting down to take a stand: Rosa Parks' actions advanced the fight for civil rights." //Success // Sept. 2011: 82+. //Gale Biography In Context //. Web. 15 Feb. 2012.
 * "It was time for someone to stand up--or in my case, sit down. I refused to move."
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">"As a child, I learned from the Bible to trust in God and not be afraid."
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">"Long ago I set my mind to be a free person and not to give in to fear. I always felt that it was my right to defend myself if I could."
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear."

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">"Rosa Parks." //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Contemporary Heroes and Heroines //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. Vol. 1. Gale, 1990. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Gale Biography In Context //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. Web. 15 Feb. 2012.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The family was very poor and worked hard to raise enough food to feed themselves. To earn money Leona sewed for her neighbors, worked as a hairdresser, and, when the rare opportunity arose, taught school. Parks's grandparents also picked crops on nearby plantations with the young girl working along beside them gathering corn, peanuts, and sweet potatoes. It wasn't unusual for a child to do this; in fact Parks's school closed three months earlier than the school for white children so that she and the other black children would be free to work all day. "I never had more than five or six months of education a year while the white children went to school for nine months," she recalled.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Unlike the school for white children, the school Parks attended was little more than a shack; there were no windows or desks and few books. When school was dismissed the children took the books they did have home to protect them in case the school was attacked by the Ku Klux Klan during the night. The education the students received was minimal, leaving most of them poorly qualified for anything but menial jobs.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Life for a Southern black in those days was harsh and full of injustice. But it was clear, even from an early age, that Parks was not one to endure acts of injustice without responding. While walking one day through a white neighborhood in Montgomery, she was pushed from behind by a white boy. Instead of walking on and trying to ignore the action, as it might have been prudent to do, Parks turned around and shoved the boy back. When the child's mother exclaimed, asking how a black girl would dare touch a white boy, Parks responded, "I don't want to be pushed by your son or anyone else," and calmly walked away.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Of all the indignities blacks had to suffer in everyday life in the South, one of the most frustrating was the treatment they received on the city bus system--a system that depended on black riders for a great part of its revenue. Martin Luther King, Jr., described the situation: "Frequently Negroes paid their fares at the front door, and then were forced to get off and reboard the bus at the rear. Often the bus pulled off with the Negro's dime in the box before he had time to reach the rear door." If the "whites only" section filled up with more whites waiting to be seated, blacks were told to stand and give up their seats. If they refused--which happened very rarely--they were arrested.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">"You died a little each time you found yourself face to face with this kind of discrimination," she commented later. "The question of where we had to sit on the bus wasn't a little thing."
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">But the day of December 1, 1955, was an especially tiring one for Mrs. Rosa Parks, and she decided to take a bus home instead of walking. The hours she'd spent pressing pants and putting cuffs in hems left her weary with a sore neck from bending over all day. She hoped she'd be able to get a seat and not have to stand all the way home. Luckily, when she climbed into the crowded bus she found one empty seat in the front of the "colored" section. As the bus picked up more riders the front of the bus--the white section--quickly filled up until there were no seats left at all. When the driver noticed a white man standing in the aisle, he ordered four people, including Rosa Parks, to give up their seats. At first no one moved. But then the bus driver said, "You all better make it light on yourselves and give me those seats." At this point three of the riders stood up, but Parks quietly refused. Giving up her seat just then was more indignity than she could bear. "I was just plain tired," she said later, "and my feet hurt." As a result Parks was arrested, taken to the police station, fingerprinted, and charged with disobeying the segregation laws. Word of the arrest of this highly respected black woman spread quickly through the black community in Montgomery with momentous results. It touched off the thirteen-month Montgomery bus boycott that brought the young Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to the forefront of the civil rights movement and resulted in the Supreme Court ruling outlawing segregation on the buses. Because of her calm but firm refusal to submit to yet another example of injustice, she became known as "the Mother of the civil rights movement." Years later Dr. King wrote of her: "She was anchored to that seat by the accumulated indignities of days gone by and the boundless aspirations of generations yet unborn."

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">"Rosa Parks." //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">American Decades //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, et al. Detroit: Gale, 1998. //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Gale Biography In Context //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. Web. 15 Feb. 2012. <span style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;">
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Because seventy-five percent of Montgomery's ridership was black, the bus company was quickly sliding into bankruptcy. Rosa and her husband lost their jobs and were considered unemployable as a result of their part in the boycott. They were also harassed with phone calls, letters, verbal threats, and intimidation. But 381 days of boycotting resulted in the banning of segregation on municipal buses, and on 21 December 1956, Rosa sat in the front of the newly integrated city buses in Montgomery, Alabama.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The elder of two children, Rosa Lee McCauley was born on 4 February 1913, to Leona Edwards McCauley, an educator, and James McCauley, a carpenter. The influences in young Rosa's life were primarily her mother and her grandparents as Rosa's parents were separated a great deal of the time because her father's occupation in construction and carpentry often took him away from home. Her mother resented being left alone, and by the time Rosa's brother was born, her parents had separated. Rosa, her mother, and her brother moved in with her maternal grandparents in Pine Level, Alabama, where Rosa spent her formative years. She did not see her father again until she was five. Her brother, who was two years and seven months younger, doted on Rosa's every word and action. She became his protector and primary caretaker while her mother worked.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">As a young girl, Rosa, too, worked as a field hand. She also tended to household chores and cared for her ill grandparents. Her mother spent much of her time teaching and soon decided that Rosa should go to a nine-month school. This would only be possible if Rosa moved away from Pine Level, so she went to Montgomery, Alabama to live with her maternal aunt. There she attended the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, a private school. By the time she was eleven, Rosa's childhood seemed far behind as she was responsible for doing household chores and domestic work outside the home. She cleaned two classrooms at her school in exchange for free tuition. After graduating, she enrolled in Booker T. Washington High School, but she dropped out to take care of her mother who had become ill. At this time, Rosa's outlook on discrimination and segregation were strengthened as family stories, her tenure at the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, and her experiences as a child came together to influence her beliefs. She came to detest the plight of blacks and the advantages that whites possessed, often at the expense of African Americans.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">As a teen Rosa sewed, read, and attended the local African Methodist Episcopal church where she busied herself with involvement in the Allen Christian Endeavor League. Her love for singing and praying would continue throughout her life.
 * **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> Courtship. **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> In her nineteenth year, Rosa met Raymond Parks through a mutual friend. Both had been previously unlucky in love, and they did not pursue a romantic relationship immediately. However their common interest in civil rights tended to bond them, and during their many conversations, they discovered that their other interests and backgrounds were similar. Both were born in the segregated South, were committed to the advancement of the black race, and were of mixed racial heritage. Like herself, Raymond cared for an ill mother and grandmother. They both shared a love of God, and like Rosa, Raymond was an active participant in his church. For a time Rosa resisted his advances, but his persistence eventually wore her down.
 * ** Civil Rights Involvement. ** In December of 1932, Rosa and Raymond were married in her mother's house. In 1933, at the age of twenty, she obtained her high-school diploma. The couple settled in Montgomery, Alabama, and Rosa engaged in a variety of occupations in an effort to augment her spouse's income. She worked as a seamstress, a domestic, and an office clerk. She became the secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1943. She was also an adviser to youth organizations and a member of the Montgomery Voters League, with which she worked to encourage blacks to become politically empowered.
 * **<span class="bold" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Personal Battle Against Segregation. **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> Rosa's thirst for education continued. She attended seminars and workshops that dealt with the civil rights struggle. Rosa waged her own personal battle against segregation as she often opted to walk home instead of riding on segregated buses. She went out of her way to avoid drinking from segregated water fountains, and by the time she was forty, Rosa was a well-known civil rights activist in her community.
 * **<span class="bold" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tired of Giving In. **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> "The only tired I was, was tired of giving in," explained Rosa Parks on 1 December 1955. Parks was returning home from her job as a seamstress. She boarded the segregated bus in the manner usual to Montgomery. Blacks would enter the front, pay, get off, and reenter through a rear door to take a seat in the back of the bus; the front of the bus was reserved for whites. On this particular day, however, the front of the bus quickly filled up. The blacks in the back of the bus were expected to vacate when a white, male passenger required a seat and there was none available in the white section. The driver told the black passengers to relinquish their seats and they all did--except Rosa. She was dealing with the same driver who had evicted her from his bus more than a decade earlier.
 * **<span class="bold" style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Personal Tragedy. **<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> During her tenure in Conyers' employ, Rosa lost her brother, spouse, and mother. Raymond's demise came in 1977 after a five-year struggle with cancer. Three months later her brother Sylvester met the same fate. And in 1979, her mother Leona also died of cancer. In August of 1994, Parks was briefly hospitalized for injuries she sustained after a thief broke into her Detroit home, robbed her of fifty dollars, and hit her. (Community outrage over her assault led to the quick arrest of her assailant.) Having had no children, Rosa was left alone except for distant relatives. But despite personal tragedy and failing health, Rosa continued to work tirelessly for the rights of all people. In October 1995 she participated in the Million Man March in Washington D.C., giving an inspirational speech.
 * <span class="bold" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">**Awards**. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> Her many awards include the Spingarn Medal (1979), the Martin Luther King, Jr., Nonviolent Peace Prize (1980), and the Eleanor Roosevelt Women of Courage Award (1984). Parks received more than ten honorary degrees, and on 28 February 1991, the Smithsonian Institute unveiled a bust of her. She established the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, and continued to raise funds for the NAACP, while keeping up an active membership in her church and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. It is the latter organization that sponsored the Rosa Parks Freedom Award which is awarded annually.
 * **<span class="bold" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Honors. **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> Streets in Detroit and Montgomery, Alabama, have been renamed Rosa Parks Boulevard; the African American Museum in Detroit unveiled her portrait in 1988, in time for her seventy-fifth birthday; she was honored in 1990 at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. In 1998 Parks was recognized with the first International Freedom Conductor Award given by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. President Bill Clinton awarded Parks the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian honor, in July 1999. In December 2000, the 50,000-square-foot Rosa Parks Library and Museum, featuring a life-size bronze sculpture of Parks, opened in Montgomery. Parks eighty-eighth birthday was spent quietly in Detroit in 2001 amidst acknowledgements from well-wishers.
 * **<span class="bold" style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; vertical-align: baseline;">Courageous Symbol. **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> Parks always was a dignified individual who influenced the society around her. She came to serve as a different symbol for different generations. For those of the 1950s and 1960s, she ignited a movement that was dormant far too long. For those of the 1990s, she became an example of efforts that actually succeeded in altering society for the better. Future generations will feel her influence as well. Her courage inspired others to take chances, work for the betterment and advancement of all people, and continue to challenge and change society's foibles and discriminatory actions.