Rosa Parks is widely known for her refusal to get up from the bus seat. Many people don't know that she was also very involved with other black rights movements. She was born in Alabama, located in the Deep South full of racism. Her parents were separated, and her and her mom went to live with Rosa's grandparents who were former slaves, giving her a taste of segregation from a young age.  She attended segregated schools during her childhood, and the conditions were much worse than white schools would have had. She didn't get to finish school, because she left to take care of her sick grandma. Instead of going back to school, she made means by working at a shirt factory.

    When she was 19, she married Raymond Parks and she was persuaded to finish high school. To start her career as a black rights activist, she joined the Montgomery Chapter of the NAACP as the youth leader. Along with that, she was a member of the Montgomery's Voters League which helped blacks pass literacy tests that allowed them to vote. Her husband shared the same views and was also part of the NAACP.

     A common misconception is that she spontaneously got tired of giving in to white people and decided to keep her seat. She was actually planning to do this to peacefully protest and lots of support from her black community. Her actions led to the Bus Boycott, a boycott held by blacks that lasted 382 days. During this boycott, blacks would refuse to ride the bus and walk everywhere they needed to go. Many people throughout the country showed their support by sending shoes and bought station wagons to drive blacks around. This not only inspired other boycotts around the country, but the Supreme Court ruled Montgomery's Segregation Rules illegal. This boycott also came to make Martin Luther King Jr. famous. Her actions inspired many, including Martin Luther King Jr. who used her as a role model. Rosa Parks is truly a hero for all of the work and time she put in to desegregate our country.