Black History Month: Celebrating Rosa Parks Day, 2015

By Rachel Hally, Product Manager

102 years ago today, Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. Most people are familiar with Parks from her courageous refusal to give up her seat to a white person on a city bus in 1955, which ignited what would become the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

But did you know she was an active member in the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP? Parks joined the NAACP in 1943 and was active in the organization for decades, serving both as Montgomery chapter secretary and Youth Division chairman.

She stayed involved in the civil rights movement throughout her lifetime, aligning with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the 1960s, and then the more radical Black Power movement in the 1970s. In the 1980s, she co-founded the Raymond and Rosa Parks Institute for Self-Development, which educates young people about the civil rights movement. Rosa Parks died in 2005.

Librarians: Learn more and sign up for free trials of ProQuest History Vault module NAACP Papers: Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and National Staff Files, and other ProQuest resources.

 

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