Rosa Parks (Rosa Louise McCauley) was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her parents were James McCauley, who was a carpenter; and Leona Edwards, a teacher.

She attended the Industrial School for Girls in Montgomery. For her secondary education, Rosa Parks attended a laboratory school established by the Alabama State Teachers College for Negros. She finished her formal education and received her high school diploma after marrying Raymond Parks.

Housekeeper Insurance saleswoman Seamstress Tailor’s assistant She was elected in 1943 to serve as the secretary of the NAACP’s Montgomery branch.

Her first run in with bus drivers in Montgomery was in 1943, on a rainy day when Rosa Parks entered through the front, rather than the back door of the bus. The bus driver forced her to leave the bus to reenter in the rear door but as she was leaving she dropped her purse. The furious bus driver kicked her off the bus to walk the five miles home in the rain.

December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to vacate her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama when the bus driver, who was the same man who she had a quarrel with 12 years ago, demanded she move. The police were called and she was taken to jail. Some people believe that Rosa Parks was just tired after a long day of work but as she wrote in her autobiography, “No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

She wrote her autobiography, Rosa Parks: My Story, in 1992 And in 1995 she published her memoirs which were titled Quiet Strength.

Rosa Parks died on October 4, 2005, at age 92, of natural causes.