Rosa Parks: “There was nothing to do but keep going.”

Rosa Parks is most famous for remaining seated. The bronze installation of her likeness in the United States Capitol's National Statuary Hall even has her posed as if she was on the Montgomery bus where she refused to stand. But the historic moment of quiet, sedentary protest that catapulted Rosa Parks onto the world stage belies the vigor she brought to the civil rights struggle her entire life.

She fought for voting rights; for accountability in brutal sexual assault cases against Black women like Recy Taylor and Joan Little; for fair access; for fair housing; for diverse representation; for Black liberation and Black power; for the end of apartheid. Rosa Parks was quietly fierce and determined to make justice happen, not eventually, but now.

The First Lessons for Rosa Parks

Rosa's mother and grandfather impressed upon her from early childhood that she was owed the same rights as anyone else. However, the pervasiveness of race- and gender-based discrimination in 1913 America proved powerful obstacles to the realization of those rights. She, her family, and Black communities throughout her home state of Alabama and the southern United States were taunted and violently harassed by the Klu Klux Klan and other white neighbors. It was clear to young Rosa that she could not let her worth be defined by the cruel laws of Jim Crow.

“My grandfather was the one who instilled in my mother that you don’t put up with bad treatment from anybody. It was passed down almost in our genes.” - Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.

Inextricably linked in the public imagination with Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa’s association with King began when he was elected as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), the group responsible for organizing and maintaining the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Their icon status grew simultaneously as the civil rights movement progressed: Rosa standing as the symbolic mother of the movement, and King as its most prominent spokesperson and leader.

Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. had a long professional relationship through the MIA and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and through their shared activism they also became friends and each other’s supporters.

When she was 42 years old, Rosa was arrested for refusing to move out of her seat on the Montgomery city bus she was riding to make room for white passengers. Some people think that she was an old woman at the time and because of that really needed to sit and rest; but she was young. Her mugshot shows youthful features—combined with her soft-spoken manner and her reputation as a highly respected member of the Montgomery, Alabama community, it’s easy to see why Rosa endures as a symbol of nonviolent resistance. It may be surprising to note, however, that Rosa was committed to Black resistance whether nonviolent or armed. She knew that Black people had to contend with constant deadly threats to themselves and their families, and she supported a variety of leaders and strategies that would keep them safe. King’s philosophy of nonviolent protest was just one of many tactics in which Rosa was willing to engage in pursuit of social justice.

“To her there was no conflict between supporting Imari Obadele, then Robert Williams, or supporting Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr—whom she loved—she saw that as the same line of freedom fighting. She was holistic in her approach to the right of all people to be free.” - Rev. JoAnn Watson (Former Detroit City Council Member)

The Emergence of an Activist

Rosa McCauley met her future husband Raymond Parks in 1931. Raymond, a barber from Montgomery, was not only a good man, he was a dedicated social warrior who was committed to the work of the civil rights movement. At the time of their meeting he was actively putting himself in harm’s way as he campaigned to free the Scottsboro Boys.

They both joined as members of The League of Women Voters. This was the beginning of Rosa’s public activism. Raymond encouraged Rosa to register to vote, no easy (or safe) task at the time for a Black Southerner. Rosa attempted to register “three times between 1943 and 1945. She was flat-out refused the first time, and during her second attempt, Parks was thwarted by a difficult questionnaire, another Jim Crow-era voter suppression tactic to keep Black people off voter rolls.” Her third time around she finally received her certificate.

Raymond and Rosa also became members of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. Rosa served as secretary from 1943 to 1956, and along with local president E.D. Nixon transformed the Montgomery branch into a vital arm of the civil rights cause. Rosa was key to growing their membership and encouraging young people to get involved in the struggle. She held youth group gatherings in her home, offering insight and practical advice about ways to push back against racial discrimination. She expressed that “staying in our place” did not reduce ill-treatment or violence and she helped infuse the next generation of civil rights activists with the confidence to move forward.

In the summer of 1955, Virginia Durr, a prominent white social activist in Montgomery, recommended Rosa for a scholarship to a two-week workshop at Highlander Folk School. Founded by Myles Horton, the school was established as a place where Black and white people could come and learn how to work together to end segregation in the South. Rosa remarked that it was her first time interacting in an environment free of the “artificial boundaries of racial segregation.” Not only did her time there sharpen her skills for defending the rights of all people—it opened her eyes to the fact that there were people of all races who were committed to equity and justice.

Thursday, December 1, 1955 and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

One fateful evening Rosa Parks, as she had done many times before, was on the bus making her way home from work. Unlike other bus rides home when she would move when asked, this time she stayed put when a white bus driver ordered her to vacate her seat in order to make room for white passengers. It was around 6 pm when Rosa defied his demands; and it was not fatigue that kept her still.

“People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was 42. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” - Rosa Parks

The recent murder of Emmett Till—and the continued violence and harassment directed at Black women, men, and children—was top of mind for her. The systemic hate and violence was overwhelming and Rosa had reached a breaking point.

Rosa was not the first Black Montgomerian arrested for keeping her bus seat in contravention of local laws. She was the first, however, whose background was relatively impervious to the smear campaigns of those who wished to discredit the civil rights movement and its participants.

On Friday, December 2 Black school children were given notes to take home to their parents asking them to keep their children off the buses. On Sunday, December 4 Black churches across the city announced the intention of a bus boycott. Observers noted that on Monday, December 5 the buses were empty of Black riders. In Montgomery, African American citizens made up a full three-quarters of regular bus riders, causing the boycott to have a strong economic impact on the public transportation system. The buses remained empty for over a year—the Montgomery Bus Boycott ended after 381 days and resulted in full integration of public transportation in the United States.

Sexism and Other Hardships

The Montgomery Bus Boycott cemented Rosa’s fame and her role as the mother of the civil rights movement. She immediately became an icon.

Despite her years of service with the NAACP and her tireless efforts in the struggle for civil rights, and even as she continued to shine as a beacon of inspiration, she was not given the same deference as her fellow civil rights leaders who were male.

While the NAACP and other civil rights entities were founded on principles of equality, they still were built within the system of patriarchy. The women in the movement experienced the same gender discrimination that pervaded the lives of all women in the 1950s and 60s, leading many of them to later join the feminist cause of the 1970s. Following her arrest and bail, for example, Rosa Parks attended a packed gathering at Montgomery’s Mount Zion AME Zion Church and the crowd wanted her to speak—she then requested to address the assembly—but was told, “Why, you've said enough." And during civil rights rallies Rosa Parks was asked to make appearances, show her face, and wave to the adoring throngs, but rarely was she given time or space to share her story and years of experience in the struggle with her own voice.

There were money problems too. Rosa’s activities in Montgomery gained her notoriety among the white business community. She was let go from her job. Raymond Parks, who barbered on Maxwell Air Force Base, eventually quit his job in protest when he was disallowed from speaking about his wife or the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Martin Luther King Jr. had a network of funding to support him throughout his civil rights activism, but despite her constant presence at NAACP meetings and important gatherings for the cause, Rosa was not compensated in the same manner.

Detroit and Rosa’s Second Act

Eventually, threats of violence and financial strain led to Raymond and Rosa relocating to Detroit, Michigan in August of 1957 where she would be near her younger brother, Sylvester, and mother, Leona. Segregation and racism, Rosa soon realized, was also endemic in the North, but being close to family and having the chance at employment eased some burdens. Throughout their entire marriage of nearly 45 years, Rosa and Raymond never owned their own home. They both suffered from health problems, including chronic insomnia brought on by years of being terrorized, and were underinsured. But their devotion to one another, and the moral compass that guided their actions, somehow never faltered under the heavy weight of their experiences.

It  was in Detroit, in 1963, that Rosa first made the acquaintance of Malcolm X at the Grassroots Leadership Conference. They shared a profound mutual admiration for one another. It was also here that she volunteered with the campaign to elect John Conyers to the House of Representatives. She even persuaded Martin Luther King Jr. to come to Michigan and show support for Conyers—the only public official he ever endorsed. Conyers won the office in 1965 and Rosa worked for him for over 20 years—her first paid political position. In June 1990, when Rosa was 77 years old, she was invited to join a Detroit welcoming committee for Nelson Mandela who, freshly released from 27 years in prison, was on an eight-city US tour. Among the long line of dignitaries waiting to greet Mandela as he stepped off his plane, it was to the small figure of Rosa Parks to whom he beelined: her reputation preceded her.

Rosa Parks died in Detroit on October 24, 2005 at age 92.

Six days later people the world over mourned as “her casket was placed in the Rotunda of the US Capitol for two days of public viewing. Parks was the first woman and the second African-American to lie in state there. She was the 31st person, the first American who had not been a US government official, and the second private person (after the French city planner Pierre L’Enfant) to be honored in this fashion.”

Dive deeper into the life and activism of Rosa Parks with the following resources:

• Library of Congress: Rosa Parks In Her Own Words
   
• Rosa Parks’ Biography: A Resource for Teaching Rosa Parks
   
• Rosa Parks Timeline
   
• Rosa Parks: My Story by Rosa Parks (Autobiography)
   
• NBC Peacock: The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (Documentary)
   
• The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis (Biography)
   
• The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks: Adapted for Young People by Jeanne Theoharis and Brandy Colbert (Biography)