5 Fascinating Facts About Rosa Parks
By Jordan Howard – Marketing Intern
You could feel tremors rumbling across America as rock ‘n’ roll excited kids and outraged parents. But an even more important transformation awaited in Montgomery, Alabama as Rosa Parks, an African-American woman, refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. Her protest ignited America’s Civil Rights movement and forever changed our nation. Through music and drama, Walk On: The Story of Rosa Parks shows how individual determination makes a difference in freedom and equality for all. We have gathered five interesting facts about Rosa Parks to get you ready for the performance.
- Rosa Parks’ mother was a teacher and her father was a carpenter. Her ancestry included African, Scots-Irish, and Native American.
- She graduated high school in 1933. At this time, less than 7% of African-Americans had a high school diploma.
- Parks became involved in the Civil Rights Movement as early as December 1943. She was elected as a secretary and organized “The Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor.” It is known by the Chicago Defender as “the strongest campaign for equal justice to be seen in a decade.”
- Rosa and her husband were active members of the League of Women Voters.
- In 1992, she published her autobiography entitled Rosa Parks: My Story.
Learn more about Rosa Parks and her story in the upcoming performance of Walk On: The Story of Rosa Parks. Join us Sunday, March 1 at 3PM. Pre-show activities will be held at 2PM in the Stewart Center Hallway. It is a show you and your family do not want to miss!