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Rosa Parks was born February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama.
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In 1932, at age 19, Rosa met and married Raymond Parks,
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Rosa earned her high school degree in 1933.
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"She soon became actively involved in civil rights issues by joining the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP in 1943, serving as the chapter's youth leader as well as secretary to NAACP President E.D. Nixon—a post she held until 1957."
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Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus for home. She took a seat in the first of several rows designated for "colored" passengers. The bus driver stopped the bus and moved the sign separating the two sections back one row and asked four black passengers to give up their seats. Three complied, but Rosa refused and remained seated. The police arrested Rosa at the scene and charged her with violation of Chapter 6, Section 11, of the Montgomery City Code.
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December 5, 1955—the day of Rosa's trial—in protest of her arrest.
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the district court declared racial segregation laws (also known as "Jim Crow laws") unconstitutional.
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The city of Montgomery appealed the court's decision shortly thereafter, but on November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling.
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boycott officially ended on December 20, 1956.
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In 1987, with longtime friend Elaine Eason Steele,
Rosa founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. -
In 1992, Rosa published Rosa Parks: My Story, an autobiography recounting her life in the segregated South.
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In 1995, she published Quiet Strength which includes her memoirs and focuses on the role that religious faith played throughout her life.
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On September 9, 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded Parks the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given by the United States' executive branch.
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Rosa was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award given by the U.S. legislative branch. In 1999, TIME magazine named Rosa Parks on its list of "The 20 most influential People of the 20th Century."
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Rosa Parks died October 24, 2005 at age 92 She died in her apartment in Detroit, Michigan. She had been diagnosed the previous year with progressive dementia.
