Here’s a look at the life of Rosa Parks, considered the mother of the civil rights movement.
Personal:
Birth date: February 4, 1913
Death date: October 24, 2005
Birth place: Tuskegee, Alabama
Birth name: Rosa Louise McCauley
Father: James McCauley, a carpenter
Mother: Leona (Edwards) McCauley, a teacher
Marriage: Raymond Parks (1932-1977, his death)
Timeline:
1930-1955 – Works several jobs as housekeeper, seamstress, secretary and life insurance agent. Spends her spare time active in the voter registration movement and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
1943-1956 – Serves as secretary for the Montgomery, Alabama, branch of the NAACP.
December 1, 1955 – Parks is arrested for not giving up her seat on a public bus to a white man while on her way home from her job as a seamstress at the Montgomery Fair department store, thus violating Jim Crow practices.
December 5, 1955 – Day one of the 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system in response to Parks’ arrest and segregation in general. It becomes known as the official beginning of the civil rights movement. On the same day, Parks is tried and found guilty of violating Montgomery’s segregation laws. Her attorneys appeal the verdict, arguing the laws are unconstitutional.
November 13, 1956 – The U.S. Supreme Court declares Montgomery bus segregation laws unconstitutional and illegal.
December 20, 1956 – The court’s written order is officially served to Montgomery officials. The boycott ends and buses are integrated.
1957 – Parks and her husband Raymond move to Detroit, Michigan, with other family members to escape pro-segregation harassment. She continues activist work with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
1965-1988 – Works as administrative assistant to U.S. Representative John Conyers.
1987 – Founds the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, an organization offering career training, education and motivation to 12 to 18-year-olds in Detroit, Michigan.
February 1991 – The Smithsonian Institute unveils a bronze bust of Parks in the National Portrait Gallery.
December 1991 – The autobiography, “Rosa Parks: My Story,” is published.
1998 – Given the first International Freedom Conductor Award from the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.
January 19, 1999 – Attends the State of the Union Address, sits with First Lady Hillary Clinton and is mentioned in the address with regards to the country’s efforts to bring about racial harmony.
June 15, 1999 – Is presented the Congressional Gold Medal by President Bill Clinton.
February 2002 – National Parks Service puts Parks’ Montgomery home on the National Registry of Historic Places. “The Rosa Parks Story” premieres on television.
August 2004 – She files a second lawsuit against the music group Outkast over their song “Rosa Parks,” seeking $5 billion from record and distribution companies and stores that sold the song, claiming the song violated her publicity and trademark rights.
September 22, 2004 – Parks’ lawyer confirms that Parks has dementia.
October 2004 – Legal dispute surrounding the appointment of a guardian for Parks: A judge appoints former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer the legal guardian of Parks, but Park’s lawyer files a motion to block Archer’s appointment.
January 12, 2005 – A judge releases Parks’ medical records showing that she has suffered from dementia since at least 2002, two years before the $5 billion lawsuit was filed in her name.
April 14, 2005 – A settlement in the suit against Outkast and record and distribution companies is announced. OutKast and co-defendants will help develop educational programs and will work with the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute to promote Parks’ legacy.
October 24, 2005 – Rosa Parks dies at the age of 92 of natural causes.
