Born: February 4, 1913, Tuskegee, AL

Education: Booker T. Washington High School, Montgomery, AL, graduated 1928

Died: October 24, 2005, Detroit, MI

Parks is revered as the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.” Arrested December 1, 1955 for refusing to give her seat to a white man, she inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott and ensuing nonviolent demonstrations against Jim Crow.

No ordinary passenger, Parks was a veteran in African Americans’ struggle for dignity and equality. Child of a schoolmarm and craftsman, she graduated from Montgomery's Industrial School for Girls, married a barber, and worked as a seamstress. A member of the local NAACP since 1943, she had been secretary, advised the youth, and helped organize a voter registration campaign. Shortly before her arrest, Parks accepted a scholarship to Highlander Folk School, Monteagle, Tennessee, for a workshop on school desegregation and community leadership. She also engaged in women's church and civic clubs, including the Women's Political Council. The council printed more than 52,000 fliers to prepare for a one-day bus strike on December 5, the date of Parks's trial. Found guilty and fined, she gave notice of her appeal. That night black citizens attended a mass meeting at Holt Street Baptist Church, where they established the Montgomery Improvement Association, elected Dexter Avenue pastor Martin Luther King Jr. president, and approved what proved to be a 381-day boycott.