Rosa Parks is a Civil Rights leader and is known today as the mother of the Civil Rights, she is still living today at the age of 91. Her mother’s name was Leona and her father’s James McCauley. Rosa Parks is known to many because of her arrest and her roll in the Civil Rights movement. She got arrested for not moving to another seat in a bus. At the time Blacks had to move to the back of the bus if the white people were standing or would have to sit in the back of the bus. But Rosa didn’t move when she was told to, she just sat there and the only thing she said was “No.”  Rosa Parks went across the nation  making speeches to make a difference and she did.

 Here are a few famous quotes from Rosa Parks:

• “To this day I believe we are on planet Earth to live, grow up and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom.”

• "It pains me that there is still a lot of Klan activity and racism. I think when you say you're happy, you have everything that you need and everything that you want, and nothing more to wish for. I haven't reached that stage yet." 

• "Differences of race, nationality or religion should not be used to deny any human being citizenship rights or privileges."

 What you will read here will be a number of Journal entries “written” by Rosa Parks. Of course this is fictional, but the information about her life is accurate.

How to Be Rosa Parks
Written by Clare

      Be born in Tuskegee Alabama
Have a mother as a teacher
Have a father as a carpenter
Be one of four children
Care for and protect your little brother
Move to your maternal grandparents’ farm in Pine Level at the age of two
Learn how to read before you start school
Have a best friend named Johnnie Car
Enroll in the Montgomery Industrial school for girls at the age of 11
Have a father that you never see
Be a seamstress  
Be a curious and stubborn girl who stands up to Whites
Refuse to give up your seat in a bus
Get let out of jail the day your arrested because someone that agrees with you sees that you get arrested
Go around the country giving speeches making a difference around the nation
Have a boycott led by Martin Luther King Jr.
Win the Spingarn Medal

Now click here to read the letters

Researched and posted by Clare, March 2004

Click here to read other Black History biographies