Today In Black History: Rosa Parks
Civil and Women's Rights Activist and Mother of the Civil Rights Movement
Issue #545 Today In Black History, Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Today, I am re-publishing my 2024 article on Mother Rosa Parks. After 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was the first to refuse to give up her seat on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama, the local NAACP chose experienced activist Rosa Parks, who was married and older, to deliberately refuse to move from her seat on December 1, 1955.
Too many people still think that Mrs. Parks was “just a seamstress” who was too tired to move at the end of the workday. Nothing could be further from the truth!
The article about Mother Parks starts below.
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Mrs. Parks is known as the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement" for her pivotal role in the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Many people were taught the false story that Mother Parks was just a tired seamstress who decided on the fly one day not to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
On the contrary, Mrs. Parks was a trained activist who had been working with the NAACP since the 1940s. She served as the secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP and was actively involved in fighting for civil rights in her community.
Rosa was taught to read by her mother at a young age and attended segregated schools throughout her education. The one-room school in Pine Level, where she often went, lacked adequate school supplies such as desks. Black students were forced to walk to the first through sixth-grade schoolhouse, while the city provided bus transportation and a new school building for white students.
In 1932, at age 19, Rosa met and married Raymond Parks, a barber and an active member of the NAACP and the League of Women Voters.
Rosa eventually earned her high school degree in 1933. This was a significant accomplishment for a young Black woman in the mid-1930s, during a time when eight out of every 10 Black children of high school age in southern states weren’t even enrolled in secondary schools.
As an adult, Mrs. Parks attended workshops and training sessions on civil rights issues, including nonviolent resistance tactics, which prepared her for the momentous decision she made on December 1, 1955, when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger. She was specifically chosen by the local NAACP chapter to make that act of defiance.
At the time, when an African American passenger boarded the bus, they had to board at the front to pay their fare, then get off and reboard at the back door. If the bus filled up with white passengers, the Black passengers were forced to give up their seats in the “colored section” to white people and stand.
Mrs. Parks’ arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a movement that lasted over a year and eventually led to the desegregation of buses in Montgomery.
Rosa became actively involved in civil rights issues by joining the NAACP’s Montgomery chapter in 1943, serving as its youth leader and secretary to NAACP President E.D. Nixon. She held the post until 1957.
During her time at the NAACP, she was involved in investigating the gang rape of Recy Taylor, a Black woman in Henry County, Alabama. Mrs. Parks also attended meetings to discuss the murder of Emmett Till, a Black teenager who was tortured and lynched after being accused of offending a white woman in Mississippi in 1955.
Mother Parks' courageous actions and ongoing work with the NAACP brought attention to the injustices of segregation and discrimination in the United States and helped to galvanize the civil rights movement. After the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Mrs. Parks continued to work for civil rights, participating in protests, marches, and demonstrations.
Raymond Parks was also involved with the Montgomery labor rights movement and led a national pledge drive to support the legal defense of the Scottsboro Boys, nine Black teenagers falsely accused in Alabama of raping two white women in 1931.
Raymond Parks' contributions to the civil rights movement may not be as well-known as his wife's, but his support and dedication were essential to Rosa's success. Together, the Parks couple made a powerful team in the fight against segregation and discrimination.
Mother Parks suffered hardship in the months following her arrest in Montgomery and the subsequent boycott. She lost her department store job, and her husband was fired from his barber job at Maxwell Air Force Base after his boss forbade him from talking about his wife or their legal case.
Unable to find work, the couple eventually left Montgomery and moved to Detroit with Parks’ mother, where Mrs. Parks started working as a secretary and receptionist in U.S. Representative John Conyers’ congressional office. She also served on the board of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and spoke out against housing discrimination and police abuse. She also befriended Malcolm X, considering him her “personal hero.”
After her husband's death, Mother Parks established the Raymond and Rosa Parks Foundation to continue their legacy of fighting for civil rights and equality. The foundation works to preserve the memory of the Parks couple and their contributions to the civil rights movement, and to promote education and activism in the ongoing fight for social justice.
Mother Rosa Parks received numerous awards and honors for her activism, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. She passed away in Detroit on October 24, 2005, at the age of 92.
Today In Black History
- In 1863, voters in West Virginia approved the gradual emancipation of slaves.
- In 1911, William Henry Lewis was appointed U.S. Assistant Attorney General by President William Howard Taft, making Lewis the first Black person with a sub-Cabinet position.
- In 1937, William Henry Hastie became the first Black federal judge when he was confirmed as Judge of the Federal District Court in the Virgin Islands.
- In 1987, Black playwright August Wilson’s play “Fences” premiered in New York City, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, four Tony Awards, and 3 Drama Desk Awards.
- In 2019, the publisher for former First Lady Michelle Obama reported that her biography, “Becoming,” had sold over 10 million copies.
