Profile of the Day: Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks

“You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.”

62 years ago today, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her act of defiance would become one of the defining moments of the American Civil Rights movement.

On December 1, 1955, Parks was riding home from a long day of work on a segregated bus. After the whites-only section was filled, the bus driver ordered her to give up her seat for a white passenger. When she refused, the bus driver called the police and she was arrested for civil disobedience.

The incident sparked a city-wide boycott of public transportation, which was known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The protest captured the nation’s attention and eventually led the Supreme Court to rule segregation of public transportation as unconstitutional.

Today, Parks is remembered as one of the most important symbols of the Civil Rights movement and an international icon for equality.

Explore Rosa Parks’s family tree on Geni and share how you’re related to the civil rights icon.
 

View Rosa Parks’s Geni Profile

Image: Schlesinger Library, RIAS, Harvard University / Flickr