Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks, with Martin Luther King, Jr. in the background, in 1955, Ebony Magazine, USIA/National Archives and Records Administration
Birth Name: Rosa Louise McCauley
Date of Birth: February 4, 1913
Place of Birth: Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S.
Date of Death: October 24, 2005
Place of Death: Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Ethnicity: African-American, as well as smaller amounts of English and Irish
Rosa Parks was an American civil rights activist. She is known for rejecting bus driver James F. Blake’s’s request to relinquish her seat to a white passenger in 1955; she was thus arrested for civil disobedience, for violating Alabama’s segregation laws. Inspiring the Montgomery bus boycott, Rosa participated in the subsequent legal challenge. An Alabama court ruled the following year that bus segregation was unconstitutional. At the time, Rosa was a department store seamstress, and a secretary at the NAACP’s Montgomery chapter. Hailed for her actions, she bcame a worldwide symbol of resistance to racism, and joined in organizing with civil rights leaders Edgar Nixon and Martin Luther King, Jr. She was later a secretary to a U.S. Congressman, was active in the Black Power movement, and supported political prisoners in the U.S. Rosa Parks has been honoured as “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement” by the U.S. Congress. Upon her death in 2005, she was the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.
Rosa was the daughter of Leona (Edwards), a teacher, and James McCauley, a carpenter. All of Rosa’s grandparents were black. One of her maternal great-great-grandfathers was Irish, and a maternal great-grandfather on another line was likely white, as well. A picture of Rosa’s father can be seen here. Rosa is sometimes described as having had some degree of Cherokee Native American, Creek Native American, and/or Scots-Irish/Northern Irish ancestry. It is not clear if any or all of these lineages have been verified/documented.
She was partly raised on her grandparents’ farm, outside Pine Level, Montgmery County, AL. Rosa was married to barber and NAACP staffer Raymond Parks, until his death.
Rosa’s paternal grandfather was named Anderson McCauley. Anderson was born in Alabama or Georgia.
Rosa’s paternal grandmother was named Louisa Collins. Louisa was born in Alabama.
Rosa’s maternal grandfather was named Sylvester Edwards (the son of Rosa Jones). Sylvester was born in Alabama. Rosa’s great-grandmother Rosa was the daughter of Joseph Jones and Mary Potter. Rosa’s grandfather Sylvester is described in the book Rosa Parks: A Life in American History, 2021, page 6, as having been the son of a white plantation owner, likely named John Edwards, who raped Rosa’s great-grandmother.
Rosa’s maternal grandmother was Rose/Rosena/Rosie Percival (the daughter of James Percival and Mary Janes Nobles). Rosa’s grandmother Rose was born in Alabama. James’s father was Irish.
Sources: Genealogies of Rosa Parks – http://www.wargs.com
http://www.geni.com
https://www.wikitree.com
Rosa Parks/Rosa McCauley on the 1920 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org
Rosa’s father on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org
Rosa’s mother on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org
A brave woman who had the courage to stand by her convictions while never losing her dignity. And a great ethnic mix too :)
Why because she refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white man. Big deal!
To sadie
Why should she have to give up her seat?Why should she or any other black have to go to the back of the bus?The woman took a stand to unfair treatment.By this simple act,she made a statement that she or any other black person were not inferior to whites.I assuming your not black,and being that you have no idea what it like to be mistreated because of your skin color.This woman paid her money,and felt she had as much right to seat up front as any white person,That’s the big deal.In the era she did this,the woman could have been beaten as well killed,that’s the big deal.Now granted Rosa by no mean was the first to do something like that,but the woman does deserve credit,for sticking to her principles(especially in Alabama)
Fuzzybear is back! good to hear from you again.
To Ethnic
Thanks man,how have you been?Well from the count down below,some don’t share your joy.However that’s fine with me,I really want be commenting that much,so the ones that know me can relax(the know it all want say much).
Hey man. I’m all good. Just trying to control the trolls on this site. As you can see there has been a lot of trolling going on.
I knew she was mixed you can just look at her and tell.
She is a woman to look up to, not a Kardashian. Girls these days -__-
er no one says the kardashians are role models… but yeah
Why would black girls look up to the kardashians in the first place. She’s not even black. If anything they should look up to beyonce, or rihanna. but anyways I agree Rosa parks is defenetly a role model for black girls.
you’re partially correct black women need to look up to African American women but then again there’s nothing wrong with a Black girl to look up to a Caucasian women
Great woman