Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in 1913. She was born in Alabama to a carpenter and a teacher. She suffered poor health as a child which is one of the reasons that she was homeschooled until she reached the age of eleven.
Rosa attended The Industrial School for Girls in Montgomery, Alabama. She then enrolled at the Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes. She became a drop-out when her grandmother became sick.
During Rosa’s lifetime, she had to endure the separation of black and white people through segregation. She had to witness the march of the Ku Klux Klan and endure racism.
In 1932, Rosa married Raymond Parks who was a barber in Montgomery, Alabama. With her husband in her corner, Rosa was able to finish school and she was also able to cross over another major milestone when she registered to vote.
Ultimately, the event that would go down in history as a reason to remember Rosa Parks occurred on December 1, 1955. Rosa had completed a day of work at a local Montgomery department store. She boarded the bus.
During her ride home, Rosa Parks was asked to move because the overcrowded bus needed more room for passengers and black people were expected to give up their seats for white passengers. Rosa Parks refused.
Rosa Parks was arrested because she stood up for what she believed in by remaining in her seat when she was asked to give it up. She went on to lose her job at the department store but she also went on to work for a greater purpose becoming an activist for civil rights.
When Rosa Parks died in 2005, her body was permitted to lie in honor at the Capital State Rotunda. Rosa Parks was the first woman to ever lie in state at the Capital State Rotunda.
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