Rosa Parks

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Martin Luther King, Jr. (center), with other civil rights supporters lock arms on as they lead the way along Constitution Avenue during the March on Washington, Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963.

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Rosa Parks

Q: Who was Rosa Parks?

Rosa Parks was an American civil rights activist whose refusal to give up her seat on a public bus precipitated the 1955–56 Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, which became the spark that ignited the civil rights movement in the United States . She is known as the “mother of the civil rights movement.”

Q: Why is Rosa Parks important?

When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus for white passengers in 1955, she was arrested for violating the city’s racial segregation ordinances. Her action sparked the Montgomery bus boycott , led by the Montgomery Improvement Association and Martin Luther King, Jr. , that eventually succeeded in achieving desegregation of the city buses. The boycott also helped give rise to the American civil rights movement .

Q: Was Rosa Parks the first Black woman to refuse to give up her seat on a segregated bus?

Rosa Parks was not the first Black woman to refuse to give up her seat on a segregated bus, though her story attracted the most attention nationwide. Nine months before Parks, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin had refused to give up her bus seat, as had dozens of other Black women throughout the history of segregated public transit.

Q: What did Rosa Parks write?

In 1992 Rosa Parks published Rosa Parks: My Story , an autobiography written with Jim Haskins that described her role in the American civil rights movement , beyond her refusal to give up her seat on a segregated public bus to white passengers.

American civil rights activist

Also known as: Rosa Louise McCauley

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Nov 23, 2024 • Article History

Quick Facts

Née:: Rosa Louise McCauley

Born:: February 4, 1913, Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S.

Died:: October 24, 2005, Detroit, Michigan (aged 92)

Role In:: American civil rights movement; Montgomery bus boycott

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Who was Rosa Parks?

Why is Rosa Parks important?

Was Rosa Parks the first Black woman to refuse to give up her seat on a segregated bus?

What did Rosa Parks write?

Rosa Parks (born February 4, 1913, Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S.—died October 24, 2005, Detroit, Michigan) was an American civil rights activist whose refusal to relinquish her seat on a public bus precipitated the 1955–56 Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, which became the spark that ignited the civil rights movement in the United States. Born to parents James McCauley, a skilled stonemason and carpenter, and Leona Edwards McCauley, a teacher, in Tuskegee, Alabama, Rosa Louise McCauley spent much of her childhood and youth ill with chronic tonsillitis. When she was two years old, shortly after the birth of her younger brother, Sylvester, ...(100 of 1221 words)

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