Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat 64 years ago here are 15 surprising facts about her
- On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama.
- Parks was seated in the correct section, but because the bus was crowded, she was expected to give up her seat.
- Her act launched a 13-month boycott of the Montgomery bus system, eventually leading her to be declared the "mother of the civil rights movement."
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for failing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. Her protest that day eventually sparked a 13-month bus boycott, which culminated with the Supreme Court declaring segregation on public transit unconstitutional. Parks was an advocate for racial equality from a very young age, and continued to fight for justice until she passed away in 2005.
While Parks is best known for her bus protest, she has shown courage and perseverance in many other, less known ways. She served on the board of Planned Parenthood and even sued hip-hop duo Outkast for using her name without permission. Her life was full of grit and hard work, and Insider has collected 15 lesser-known facts to celebrate her legacy.
Both of Rosa Parks' grandparents were former slaves and strong advocates for racial equality.
Rosa Parks grew up on her grandparents' farm in Pine Level, Alabama. She remembered seeing the Ku Klux Klan march by her street as her father stood outside with a shotgun.
She was in the small percentage of African Americans who earned high school diplomas.
She completed high school at a time when less than 7% of African Americans were earning high school diplomas. Parks actually dropped out when she was 16 to care for her dying grandmother, but with her husband's encouragement, at age 19 she went back to school. She earned her diploma in 1933.
She became active in the civil rights movement 12 years before she refused to give up her seat.
She became active in the movement in 1943 and also joined the NAACP in Montgomery. She later served as its secretary.
Parks spent many years traveling through Alabama and interviewing victims of discrimination.
As secretary of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, Parks would travel throughout Alabama, speaking with victims of discrimination and those who had seen lynchings. She reported these stories and shared the personal accounts with her team at the NAACP.
The bus driver who called the police and arrested her had actually given her a hard time more than 10 years earlier.
In 1943, Parks boarded a bus driven by James Blake. He told her she had to pay her fare at the back of the bus, and as soon as she hopped off, he drove away. Parks actively tried to avoid Blake, but on December 1, 1955, he was the driver who ended up calling the police on her.
"If I had been paying attention," she wrote in her autobiography, "I wouldn't even have gotten on that bus."
Parks wasn't the first to refuse to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus —a 15-year-old girl was.
In March 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up hers on a Montgomery bus, and she was arrested. Before her, Aurelia Browder, Mary Louise Smith, and Susie McDonald had all challenged bus segregation laws in Alabama.
Despite reports that Parks had not left her seat because she was tired, she disputed that account in her autobiography.
Parks explained in her autobiography that she was not physically tired that day. Instead, she emphasized, "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."
Her arrest inspired the Montgomery bus boycott, which lasted for 381 days.
On the day of Parks' trial, people were encouraged to walk, taxi, or share rides to work in protest of the arrest. This prompted organizers to plan a boycott, which became the Montgomery bus boycott and lasted for 381 days. It was successful: The Supreme Court declared segregation on public transit unconstitutional.
Not giving up her seat wasn't Parks' only arrest. A year later, she was jailed once again.
On February 22, 1956, 114 protesters, including Parks, were arrested for going against the bus segregation laws during the Montgomery bus boycott. The arrest was an important opportunity to gain media attention and continue propelling the boycott forward.
During the bus boycott, Parks and her husband lost their jobs, received death threats, and eventually moved to Detroit.
Parks worked as a seamstress in a department store but was fired after her arrest, although she was told it was not because of the boycott. She also received endless phone calls and death threats. In 1957, Parks, her husband, and her mother packed up everything and moved to Detroit.
She served on the board of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Once in Detroit, Parks worked as a secretary for US Representative John Conyers' congressional office, as well as serving on the board of Planned Parenthood.
She was named one of Time magazine's "20 Most Influential People of the 20th Century."
Bill Clinton also awarded Parks the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given by the United States' executive branch. The next year, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award given by the US legislative branch.
Rosa Parks filed a lawsuit against hip-hop group Outkast after they released a song titled "Rosa Parks."
In 1998, the hip-hop duo released a song titled "Rosa Parks," with a chorus singing "Ah-ha, hush that fuss. Everybody move to the back of the bus."
Parks filed a lawsuit against the duo the following year, arguing defamation and false advertising because the group used her name without her permission. The group fought back, claiming its song was protected by the first amendment.
The case was eventually settled in 2005, with the group agreeing to work with Rosa Parks and the Raymond Parks Institute to help develop educational programs and inspire today's youth.
When Parks died, 50,000 people came to Washington DC to see her casket.
Parks, who was 92 when she died, was buried between her mother and husband at Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery. In fact, the chapel where the service was held was eventually renamed the Rosa L. Parks Freedom Chapel.
There is an iconic statue of Parks in the United States Capitol's National Statuary Hall.
The life-size statue honors Parks, who is also the first black woman to be honored with a statue in the US Capitol.
Parks once wrote, "We are here on Earth to live, grow up, and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom."
- Read more:
- 60 years ago today, Rosa Parks refused to leave her bus seat — here's the police report
- A 2-time Super Bowl winner says Colin Kaepernick will go down in history like Muhammad Ali and Rosa Parks
- Billy Graham will be the 4th private citizen to lie in honor in the US Capitol — here's what that means
- One of America's most important civil rights laws was signed 50 years ago today
Follow INSIDER on Facebook.
Follow INSIDER on Twitter.ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o8HSoqWeq6Oeu7S1w56pZ5ufonxygYysrKuoop7AqrrGZp2am6SoeqKuzq6rZqqfqK5uvMCroqw%3D