| 1903 |
“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem
of the color- line,” predicts Negro intellectual W. E.
B. Du Bois in The Souls of Black Folk |
| 1909 |
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) founded |
| February 4, 1913 |
Rosa Louise McCauley born in Tuskegee, Alabama, the daughter
of a carpenter and a schoolteacher |
| 1915 |
Baptized in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church
Moves with her mother and younger brother to her grandparents’
farm in Pine Level, Alabama |
| 1918 |
Begins attending segregated elementary school in Pine Level |
| 1924 |
Enrolls in the Montgomery Industrial School, a private school
run by Northern liberal white women, popularly known as “Miss
White’s Industrial School for Girls” |
| Dec. 1932 |
Marries Raymond Parks, a barber, in Pine Level, Alabama |
| 1931-33 |
Raymond is active in the National Committee to Defend the
Scottsboro Boys, eight black youths unjustly convicted of raping
two white women |
| 1933 |
Receives high school diploma and attends Alabama State College
in Montgomery |
| 1941 |
Works as a secretary at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery,
an integrated federal facility; rides on integrated buses on
the base |
| 1942 |
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) formed |
| 1943 |
Is denied the right to register to vote
Is put off a city bus for refusing to enter by the back door
Becomes secretary of the Montgomery NAACP |
| 1944 |
Is denied the right to vote for a second time |
| 1945 |
Successfully registers to vote at last |
| 1946 |
Attends a NAACP leadership training seminar in Jacksonville,
Florida |
| c. 1947 |
Begins working as a seamstress in a local tailoring shop |
| 1948 |
President Harry Truman orders the desegregation of U.S.
military forces
Makes a speech before the Alabama NAACP convention and
is elected secretary of the state convention |
| 1949 |
Becomes adviser to NAACP Youth Council |
| 1954 |
U.S. Supreme Court rules that “separate but equal”
doctrine is unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education |
| Summer 1955 |
Attends civil rights workshop at the Highlander Folk
School, a populist labor/civil rights organizing center located
in Monteagle, Tennessee
The news of a 14-year old black boy from Chicago, Emmett
Till, brutally murdered and mutilated in Mississippi draws national
attention and wide sympathy for “the Negro cause.” |
| Dec. 1, 1955 |
Arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery
bus |
| Dec. 5, 1955 |
Stands trial and is convicted of disorderly conduct
Attends the first mass meeting of the Montgomery Improvement
Association led by Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott begins |
| Feb. 21, 1956 |
Is indicted along with 89 others for boycotting city buses |
| Nov. 13, 1956 |
U.S. Supreme Court rules segregation on Montgomery buses to
be unconstitutional |
| Dec. 21, 1956 |
Montgomery City buses are integrated for the first time; the
bus boycott is ended after 381 days |
| 1957 |
Moves to Detroit
President Dwight Eisenhower sends the U.S. Army’s
101st Airborne Division to protect black students integrating
the Little Rock (Arkansas) Central High School
Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) is founded
with Martin Luther King, Jr., as its first president |
| 1958 |
Leaving her husband and mother behind in Detroit, Rosa Parks
works for a year at the all-black Hampton Institute in Virginia |
| 1959 |
Returns to Detroit and begins working as a seamstress again |
| 1960 |
Black college students stage lunch counter sit-ins at
the Greensboro, North Carolina, Woolworth’s
Civil Rights Act of 1960 signed into law
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) formed |
| Summer 1961 |
Black and white college students test segregated buses
in a widespread movement known as the Freedom Rides; racist
violence against them brings more national support for civil
rights |
| 1962 |
President John F. Kennedy federalizes Mississippi National
Guard to secure the admission of James Meredith to the University
of Mississippi |
| 1963 |
Attends the March on Washington
Addresses the national meeting of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference
Massive Civil Rights Demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama,
and the response of the white power structure—the use
of fire hoses and police dogs—are seen for the first time
on national television |
| 1964 |
President Lyndon B. Johnson declares, “We Shall
Overcome,” on national television
Civil Rights Bill of 1964 signed into law |
| 1965 |
Participates in the Selma-to-Montgomery March
Joins Coretta Scott King in speaking before the national meeting
of the Women’s Public Affairs Committee of 1,000, a multiracial
group dedicated racial harmony
Begins working as an aide to Congressman John Conyers
Voting Rights Act of 1965 signed into law
Malcolm X, a radical black spokesman, is assassinated
Riots in the Watts section of Los Angeles |
| 1968 |
Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated and urban riots
rock the nation |
| 1970 |
Receives the Spingarn Award, the NAACP’s highest honor
for contributions to civil rights |
| 1977 |
Raymond Parks dies |
| 1987 |
Founds the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development |
| 1988 |
Retires from Congressman Conyers’ office |
| 1994 |
Is attacked in her Detroit home by a young man demanding money |
| 1995 |
Addresses the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. |
| 1996 |
President Bill Clinton awards her the Presidential Medal of
Freedom, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the U.S. government |
| 1999 |
Receives the Congressional Gold Medal |
| 2000 |
Attends the dedication of the Rosa Parks Museum at the Troy
State University, Montgomery |
