Rosa Parks
(b. 1913)

No documentary of the American Civil Rights movement would be complete without mention of Rosa Parks. Her refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus to a white passenger sparked a bus boycott by African American riders. The boycott began December 5, 1955 and lasted nearly 400 days–until December of 1956, when the Supreme Court ordered the desegregation of buses in Montgomery.

Born in 1913, Parks lived most of her life during times of racial injustice and segregation. By the 1940s, Parks was fully engaged in the fight against segregation. In 1943, she was elected secretary of the Montgomery branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Parks triggered nationwide interest in 1955 when she was arrested for refusing to vacate her bus seat. Inspired by her cause, the Montgomery Improvement Association was created, and Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., was elected as its president.

Parks' lifelong devotion to the rights of African Americans has garnered her numerous awards. Her writings include The Autobiography of Rosa Parks (1990) and I am Rosa Parks (1996).

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