Rosa Parks Timeline

  • Rosa Parks Birth

    Rosa Parks Birth
    On February 4, 1913, Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her parents were James McCauley, a carpenter, and Schoolteacher Leona McCauley.
  • Rosa Parks Gets Married

    Rosa Parks Gets Married
    On December 18th, 1932, Rosa McCauley marries Raymond Parks, a barber, when she was only 19 years old.
  • Rosa Parks Joins the NAACP

    Rosa Parks Joins the NAACP
    Rosa Parks believed that the white Americans weren't treating the black Americans fairly, so she decided to join the NAACP in 1943. She later on, in the same year, was named the secretary of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).
  • Rosa Parks Arrested

    Rosa Parks Arrested
    Rosa Parks is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give her seat on the bus to a white passenger. She was only in jail for one night, and paid a $14 fine.
  • Buses Desegregated

    Buses Desegregated
    On December 21, 1956, The Montgomery buses are desegregated and black passengers could legally take any seat on the city's buses. Just one year after Rosa Parks was arrested for sitting in a white passenger's seat, this desegregation came into effect.
  • Raymond Parks dies

    Raymond Parks dies
    On August 19, 1977, Raymond Parks was battling cancer for five years when he finally lost the battle. He died of cancer in Detroit, Michigan.
  • Rosa Receives Gold Medal of Honor

    Rosa Receives Gold Medal of Honor
    On June 15, 1999, President Clinton awards Rosa the 250th Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, the highest honor a civilian can receive in the United States.
  • Rosa Parks Dies

    Rosa Parks Dies
    On October 24, 2005, Rosa Parks passes away in her house in Detroit. Her funeral lasted 7 hours long and was held at the Greater Grace Temple Church on November 2nd of the same year.