Today is Rosa Parks Day–a day set aside to commemorate Rosa Parks’ strength in refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus, thus starting the civil rights movement in the United States. When doing research for this blog, I realized that this event is really all I know about Rosa Parks. So this blog has been educational for me. Here are some facts about Rosa:
- Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in 1913
- She married Raymond Parks, a barber and active member of the NAACP, when she was 19.
- Rosa became the secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP.
- Due to her refusal to give up her bus seat, Rosa was arrested and found guilty of violating segregation laws. She received a suspended sentence and was fined $10 plus $4 in court costs.
- Rosa’s arrest was the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott, which lasted over a year and ended when the U.S. Supreme Court found bus segregation to be unconstitutional.
- Due to threats and harassment, Rosa and her family moved to Detroit, Michigan. She died there in 2005.
- Rosa is the first woman to lie in state at the U.S. Capital Building.
- Rosa is known as “the mother of the civil rights movement.”
Check out these activities on Rosa Parks that are perfect for the month of February:
Have students make this booklet to explain why they believe Rosa stayed in her seat that day.
Students summarize important events in Rosa’s life with this activity sheet.