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Rosa Parks: Life after Montgomery

It is well known that Rosa Parks played a spearhead role in the civil rights movement, by refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus to a white passenger. Her life was a flicker of hope in a world of inequality.  It’s important to understand what happened to her after the bus boycotts that were started soon after her arrest. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was organized because of Rosa’s arrest for violating the city ordinance that demanded all public transportation be segregated.  The effects of this 381 day boycott were far reaching crippling the public transit system, and severely damaging the business of the down town district. Rosa Parks life continued to make an impact even after these events.

It is well known that she became the a face of the civil rights movement after the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  But the story doesn’t end there.  It’s crucial to also understand the hardships both she and her husband suffered. She lost her job at the department store when the department store she worked at heard about her arrest, and her husband lost his after his boss forbade him from speaking about his wife or her legal troubles. Neither Rosa nor her husband, Raymond, could find work in Montgomery. Eventually Rosa, Raymond, and Rosa’s mother moved away from Montgomery eventually settling in Detroit, Michigan.

After relocating to Detroit Rosa Parks and her family were able to establish a new life for themselves. She found employment as a secretary and receptionist for then United States Representative John Conyers at his Congressional office in Detroit. She also was a board member of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. This was just the beginning of her new life away from Montgomery, although she never stopped fighting for equal rights.

1. This organization was founded so that the younger generations never forgot the struggles that African-Americans faced in the past, and maybe will help pave a better road for the future.

Rosa Parks had two books published about her life one in 1992 and the other in 1995. Her first book was an autobiography named, Rosa Parks: My Story; this publication recounted her life in the south during the time of segregation. Her second book titled Quiet Strength spoke about what part religion played in her life. While Rosa’s story has become an inspiration for all races it is important to understand that she lived through hardships.

Along with the hardships she faced, she also had moments of high achievement earning some of the United States highest awards including the Spingam Award, which is the NAACP’s highest honor; Martin Luther King, Jr. Award; Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was awarded by then President Bill Clinton, and the highest award given by our executive branch; Congressional Gold Medal, which is again the highest award given by our legislative branch; and in 1999 Time Magazine named Rosa Parks as one of the 20th centuries most influential people. She has been given high praise for her profound influence in the fight for equal rights.

Sadly on October 24, 2005 Rosa Parks died in her apartment at the age of 92, from complications of progressive dementia. Her death was celebrated by many memorials including lying in state at Capital Hill Rotunda in Washington D.C. There were approximately 50,000 visitors who came to pay their last respects to this amazing lady. She was later buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit between her mother and her husband.  Later the mausoleum where she was buried was renamed the “Rosa L. Parks Freedom Chapel”.  This was a fitting end to an amazing life; it is still amazing that one lady could bring about such change with one simple action.

About the author

Rosa Parks, named The Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement, was an African-American woman born in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1913. She is most well known for her stand against racial segregation on public buses in Montgomery, Alabama. Learn more about this extraordinary woman.

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