Rosa Parks, born on the 4th of February in 1913, was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. U.S. Congress has called her “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement”.

Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation in Montgomery, but the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) believed that she was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat for a white person.

According to historian Dr. Casey Nichols, following this arrest, Parks immediately contacted local NAACP president E.D. Nixon and informed him of her arrest. Within hours, the Women’s Political Council (WPC), formed in 1946 to address the grievances of black bus patrons in Montgomery, sprang into action, printing flyers, phoning potential supporters, and organizing carpools.

The boycott succeeded in 1957 after the Supreme Court declared bus segregation unconstitutional. Parks’ act of defiance and the Montgomery bus boycott became important symbols of the movement, and she became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation.

After the boycott’s conclusion, Parks moved to Detroit, Michigan and began working as an assistant to Detroit Congressman John Conyers. She has received numerous honors, including over 40 honorary degrees, the Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, and two NAACP image awards. In 2002, Parks produced a biographical film titled “The Rosa Parks Story.”

“The only tired I was was tired of giving in.”

hello everyone - happy Black history month 🌌 here’s a massive archive list of Black and Marxist writing and film (with downloads!) to check out xoxo

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