Rosa Louise (McCauley) Parks (1913 - 2005)

Born 4 Feb 1913 in Tuskegee, Macon, Alabama, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Raymond Arthur Parks — married 18 Dec 1932 in Montgomery, Macon, Alabama, United States

Died 24 Oct 2005 at age 92 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, United States

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Biography

Rosa (McCauley) Parks is Notable.

Rosa (McCauley) Parks was awarded the Spingarn Medal for outstanding achievement by an African American.

Rosa (McCauley) Parks was a part of the Civil Rights Movement.

Rosa (McCauley) Parks was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star.

Rosa Parks is remembered as the "first lady of the civil rights movement" in the United States. Her refusal to give up her bus seat to a white rider sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and became a symbol of the movement. Rosa went on to collaborate with other civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King Jr. ^[1][2][3][4]

Family

Rosa Louise McCauley was born February 4th, 1913 to James McCauley and Leona Edwards in Tuskegee, Alabama.^{[5][2][4][6][7]} She came from mixed racial ancestry, with one of her great grandparents being of Scottish/Irish descent. In the Deep South at the time she was considered non-white, making her subject to Jim Crow laws.^[8] Her parents divorced when she was young and Rosa grew up with her mother and grandparents.^[3][8] The family moved to Pine Level, Alabama when Rosa was young and she attended elementary school there.^[8][2] After finishing at Pine Level, Rosa attended Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, and later attended Alabama State Teacher's College High School.^[2] Her grandmother's death prevented her from graduating with her class.^[2]

December 18, 1932, Rosa married Raymond Parks in Montgomery, Alabama.^{[2][3][4][9][10]} The couple never had children. Two years after their marriage, Rosa finally got her diploma, which had been further delayed by her mother's illness.^[2] Rosa worked as a seamstress and Raymond was a barber.^[3]

Reformer

Influenced by the KKK riding past her home and her school having been burned down twice when she was a child, Rosa grew up with her grandfather regularly standing guard in front of their house with a shotgun and her often joining him.^[3][4] There was much injustice in her life. She became very tired of having to give in and let others take her liberty away.^[4] About her famous stand on the bus, she is quoted as saying "All I was doing was trying to get home from work."^[11]

Her husband, Raymond, was an active member in the NAACP.^[2][3][4] This led to Rosa's participation in the organization.^[2] In 1943, she became the secretary of the Montgomery chapter, and later a youth leader.^[2][3] December 1, 1955, Rosa's famous incident on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama occurred.^[3] She refused to sit at the back of the bus and give up her seat to a Caucasian man.^[2] The event inspired protest events around the country.^[2] In Montgomery, there was a bus boycott that lasted 381 days.^[2][3] Dr. Martin Luther King was spokesperson for the boycott.^[2]

Rose Parks Arrest Booking Photo

Rosa lost her job amid the boycott in Montgomery and received death threats.^[4] She and Raymond moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1957, after a brief tour of the country, and was active in the local African Methodist Episcopal church.^[2][3] She worked for Congressman John Conyers from 1965 to 1988 helping homeless find housing.^[2][3][4] In 1987, she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development.^[2][3] The organization was founded in honor of her husband, Raymond, and works to help youth achieve their fullest potential.^[2] She also wrote four books, all autobiographical.^[2]

Rosa received at least 43 honorary doctorate degrees, as well as many awards, certificates, plaques, and honors.^[2] In 1993, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame ^[12]. In 1996, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.^[2] She received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999.^[13]

Later Years

While still living in Detroit in August 1994 a black man by the name of Joseph Nathaniel Skipper broke into the Civil Rights Icon home hit her in the face and robbed her of 53.00 dollars he was later arrested tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Fearing for her safety friend who was himself a civil rights Icon and federal judge Damon Keith a Detroit Native went in search of a safer place for Rosa Parks to live. He would find her a place to stay at the Riverfront apartments. After reading about the story in the newspaper Businessman, Sports MagnateMike Iltch founder and owner of Little Caesars Pizza franchise as well as the owner of both the National Hockey League's Detroit Red Wings and Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers contacted Damon Keith who said after the death of Iltich “They don’t go around saying it, but I want to, at this point, let them know, how much the Ilitches not only meant to the city, but they meant so much for Rosa Parks, who was the mother of the civil rights movement,” When Iltch contacted me he offered to pay for Parks’ housing indefinitely. With no fanfare, Ilitch continued paying for the apartment until Parks died in 2005, Keith said.^{[14] [15]}

Legacy

Rosa Parks died October 24th, 2005 in Detroit, Michigan.^[2][6] She had been battling dementia and poor health, and had suffered financial difficulty. Rosa is buried in the Rosa Parks Memorial Mausoleum, Woodlawn Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan.^[7]

Both Rosa's birthday, February 4, and the day she was arrested, December 1, are commemorated as Rosa Parks Day in California and Ohio.^[1] The first Monday after February 4th is Rosa Parks Day in Michigan.^[2] A museum and library was opened in her honor in Montgomery, Alabama.^[2][16]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Wikipedia contributors, "Rosa Parks," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Wikipedia: Rosa Parks (accessed December 22, 2016).
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23} "Rosa Louise Parks Biography", Rosa and Raymond Parks, accessed 7 Dec 2018
3. ↑ ^{3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11} "Rosa Parks", International Civil Rights Walk of Fame, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior (NPS.gov), accessed 7 Dec 2018
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7} Theoharis, Jeanne, "Get Reintroduced to Rosa Parks as a New Archive Reveals the Woman Behind the Boycott", Smithsonian Magazine, December 2015. Accessed 7 Dec 2018
5. ↑ Social Security: "U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007"
   Social Security Applications and Claims, 1936-2007
   Ancestry Record 60901 #31154900 (accessed 15 May 2023)
   Name: Rosa Louise Parks [Rosa Louise McCauley]; Gender: Female; Race: Black; Birth Date: 4 Feb 1913; Birth Place: Tuskegee Mac, Alabama; Death Date: 24 Oct 2005; Father: James McCauley; Mother: Leona Edwards; Death Certificate Number: 00000000000000000000069814; Notes: Jul 1944: Name listed as ROSA LOUISE PARKS.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (20 May 2014), Rosa Louise Parks, 24 Oct 2005; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 07 December 2018), memorial page for Rosa Parks (4 Feb 1913–24 Oct 2005), Find A Grave: Memorial #12149998, citing Woodlawn Cemetery, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, USA ; Maintained by Find A Grave .
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1 8.2} "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (accessed 22 December 2016), Rosa Mccauley in household of Sylvester Edwards, Pine Level, Montgomery, Alabama, United States; citing ED 120, sheet 4A, line 2, family 60, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 36; FHL microfilm 1,820,036.
9. ↑ "Alabama County Marriages, 1809-1950", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKMB-8JGX : 16 July 2015), Raymond Ahshield Parks and Rosa Louise McCauley, 1932.
10. ↑ "Alabama County Marriages, 1809-1950", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKMY-27X9 : 16 July 2015), Raymond Ahshield Parks and Rosa Louise McCauley, 1932.
11. ↑ Meltzer, Brad, Heroes for my son, pgs 98-99, Harper Collins Publishing
12. ↑ National Women's Hall of Fame, Seneca Falls, New York
13. ↑ Congressional Gold Medal Recipients, History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives.
14. ↑ https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/15/us/mike-ilitch-rosa-parks-trnd/index.html
15. ↑ https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/crime/man-imprisoned-for-rosa-parks-attack-charged-in-home-invasion/69-7f5ecd4a-8d19-4a26-9da1-6bc430aa8348
16. ↑ Rosa Parks Museum, Troy University, Montgomery, Alabama

See also:

• Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words, Library of Congress exhibit, December 5, 2019–May 31, 2022. Includes many photos and other primary source documents.
• National Archives Catalog. Images of the 1955 Police Report and Fingerprinting relating to arrest of Rosa L Parks are attached as exhibits to case file for Aurelia S. Browder et al. v. W. A. Gayle et al., No. 1147, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, Northern Division, filed Feb 1, 1956. See file image nos. 344-346
• Rosa Parks - historic house project

GenealogyBank

• "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch (22 July 2016), Rosa Louise Parks Mccauley, Bellevue, Washington, United States, 25 Oct 2005; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com (2014); citing King County Journal, born-digital text.
• "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVT4-X4QX : 10 September 2016), Rosa Louise Mccauley in entry for Raymond Parks, Long Island, New York, United States, 25 Oct 2005; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, (GenealogyBank.com 2014); citing Newsday, born-digital text.
• Wikidata: Item Q41921