This story is about one of the most influential African-American Civil Rights Activists and was named "The First Lady of Civil Rights" and "The Mother of The Freedom Movement." Rosa Parks worked alongside Martin Luther King Junior in the 1950s-1960s.  

Hello, I am Rosa Parks, and I was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on February 4th in 1913. My mom Leona Edwards was a teacher and my dad, James McCauley, was a carpenter. I grew up on a farm just outside the city of Montgomery, Alabama.

My parents then separated, and I moved with my mom and brother to live with my grandparents in Pine Level. My grandparents were both former slaves and STRONG believers in equal rights for black and white people.

A picture of my mom and I.

I experienced a lot of racial inequality in Alabama when I was a kid. I went to school in Pine Level. The school I went to was a one-room, segregated school. 

I had to leave school when my mom and grandma got sick. I never went back to school and instead got a job in a factory.

A Picture of my school.

My life as a civil rights activist started around the time that I married my husband Raymond Parks. He was a part of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and I too joined this movement.  

The NAACP in 1932

During this time, "Jim Crow Laws" enforced racial segregation in schools, public baths, shops, and public transportation. This meant that blacks and whites were separated from each other.