Who Was Rosa Parks?

Rosa Parks is considered to be the mother of the Civil Rights movement. She is most famous for refusing to give her bus seat up to a white passenger in 1955. She was arrested for this refusal and her trial triggered the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was one of the largest and most successful movements against racial segregation in history. Rosa Parks was an icon for the Civil Rights movement. Her fights for civil rights caused her a lot of hardships in her life, including a physical attack by a drug dealer when she was 81 years old. However, no matter how much hardship she received, she always stood strong for what she believed. She fought for civil rights for all people. Rosa Parks resided in Detroit, Michigan for most of her life. She was diagnosed with dementia in 2004 and she peacefully died in her Detroit apartment on October 24, 2005. The bus that she was riding on when she got arrested is now on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit.