On December 1, 1955, a young woman took a stand by refusing to leave her seat on a segregated bus in Alabama, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It seems appropriate that we celebrate the anniversary of Rosa Parks' birth today, during Black History Month.

Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. After marrying, she became involved in the the NAACP and served as the Montgomery chapter's secretary. She was also involved in the Montgomery Voters' League, which assisted African Americans in passing the voter registration tests. For refusing to give up her seat on the bus, Parks was arrested, fined $14, and convicted of violating segregation laws. She challenged the law, and Martin Luther King, Jr. organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Unfortunately, the notoriety hurt Parks, as she was fired from her job, threatened, and hassled. She and her husband left Montgomery and eventually settled in Detroit. Despite earlier disagreements with Civil Rights leaders in Montgomery, Parks continued to fight for equality by raising funds for the NAACP and co-founding the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1999. Parks passed away on October 24, 2005.*

You can learn more about Rosa Parks from our Biography Resource Center database or from a variety of books, such as:

Rosa Parks / Douglas Brinkley
Quiet strength : the faith, the hope, and the heart of a woman who changed a nation / Rosa Parks with Gregory J. Reed
Great African-American women / Darryl Lyman
A wonderful life : 50 eulogies to lift the spirit / edited by Cyrus M. Copeland. This book contains President Bill Clinton's eulogy of Parks.

*Source:
"Rosa Parks." Newsmakers, Issue 1. Thomson Gale, 2007.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC