Her Life
Mrs. Parks was born on February fourth 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. she was the first born of James and Leona McCauley. Her mother was a teacher and a farmer and her father was a carpenter and a farmer. Rosa went to an all African American one room schoolhouse for elementary school. When she was 11 she moved to Montgomery Alabama to live with her aunt and attended Miss White's school for girls. She also attended Montgomery Industrial school for girls. Mrs. Parks later left school to take care of her ill grandmother, she took care of her family by learning how to sow. Her interest in the civil rights movement grew when she married Raymond Parks a barber who was a civil rights activist in 1932. Rosa Parks was involved in many civil rights groups including one that African Americans pass the test to vote. She worked as a house keeper and a seamstresses, one night one her way home from work she refused to give up her seat on the bus.
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She was then arrested and fined, after that she was convicted in court for going against the segregated law. This started the long 13 month Montgomery bus boycott. She received in 1996 the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 1999 she received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Rosa Parks died just a few years late at the age of 92 on October 24, 2005.
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Quotes About Rosa Parks
Rev. Jesse JacksonShe sat down in order that we might stand up. Paradoxically, her imprisonment opened the doors for our long journey to freedom. |
Martin Luther King Jr.Mrs. Rosa Parks is a fine person... I'm happy that it happened to a person like Mrs. Parks, for nobody can doubt the boundless outreach of her integrity. Nobody can doubt the height of her character nobody can doubt the depth of her Christian commitment and devotion to the teachings of Jesus. |