Rosa Louise McCauley Parks – 1913-2005

A Chronology of Rosa Parks' Life

• 1913 – Born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4
• 1934 – Receives high school diploma
• 1943
  • Becomes secretary of the Montgomery NAACP
  • Tries to register to vote and denied
  • Forced off bus for not entering at back door
• 1945 – Finally receives certificate for voting
• 1949 – Becomes advisor to NAACP Youth Council
• 1955
  • Meets Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Refused to give-up her seat on the bus
• 1963 – Attends civil rights march on Washington
• 1965 – Begins working for Congressman John Conyers in Detroit
• 1987 – Cofounds the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development
• 1991 – Bust of Rosa Parks is unveiled at Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.
• 1996 – Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom
• 1999 – Awarded Congressional Gold Medal
• 2005 – Rosa Parks died on October 24, 2005

Memories of our lives, of our works and deeds will continue in others.

Rosa Parks