Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks: My Story is the 1992 autobiography of Rosa McCauley Parks, one of the most prominent activists of the Civil Rights Era that began in the mid-twentieth century. A black American who endured the country’s segregation laws and intense racist sentiment until she realized an imperative not to be complacent, Parks describes her life, from her early childhood in Montgomery, Alabama through her peaceful protests and long-term involvement with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She vividly recalls the years of the country’s segregation laws, which explicitly prohibited African American people from choosing where to live, obtaining certain jobs, and attending educational institutions. Parks’s life was very difficult, but not unlike those of countless other African Americans. She eventually teamed up with her husband and the NAACP. From there, she helped make many landmark victories that improved the rights and liberties of black people.

Parks begins her autobiography with a look back at her formative years in Montgomery. She retraces several memories in which she learned that to be African American was to be perceived as morally, intellectually, and existentially lesser, and therefore deserving of a lower status. Parks remembers seeing her black classmates bullied by white children casually and in public. Many of her memories involve threats made by the Ku Klux Klan, or KKK, against her family. Her father constantly kept the family home prepared for a violent incursion, and her grandfather lingered near the house’s front with a loaded shotgun. African Americans reacted differently to the various atrocities they faced. Some preferred to remain silent, hoping that they would live unnoticed and, therefore, unthreatened. Parks’s family, in contrast, rejected complacency. From an early age, her family instilled her with a desire to improve the conditions of the oppressed.

Around the time she reached puberty, Parks, then Rosa McCauley, met Raymond Parks. She would later marry him, but in the beginning, she was inspired by his long record of civil rights activism and membership in the NAACP. Raymond convinced Parks to become an activist herself. She started by joining the NAACP as a secretary. In the coming years, she fought for the desegregation of schools. Though the civil rights movement floundered at first in its effort to stop the systematic repression of opportunities for black people to vote, it reached many milestones during Parks’s early tenure at the NAACP.



Parks’s most historically famous act of protest occurred on December 1, 1955. While riding a city bus, which was segregated like most public spaces, she refused to relinquish her seat in the front for a white passenger. Her action resulted in a charge for breaking segregation laws, and the city jailed her. The NAACP bailed her out of jail and decided to use her act of peaceful protest as a symbol for solidarity against racial segregation. Parks never expected to skyrocket to fame as she did. The NAACP called for a mass boycott of Montgomery’s bus system, which was widely implemented and publicized. The system lost so much money over the following year that many routes were canceled. Ultimately, the boycott forced Montgomery to nullify its bus segregation laws.

Parks closes her autobiography by describing her transition into becoming a figurehead for the civil rights movement. White people refused the broadening of black people’s rights and often tried to punish her for it, threatening her as well as her family, friends, and colleagues. The NAACP suffered many bombings at the homes of its constituents. Rosa recalls spending many months in fear of retribution. Eventually, her popularity became overwhelming, and she moved with Raymond to Detroit. There, her and Raymond’s reputations preceded them, and they struggled to find jobs. Eventually, they founded a foundation called the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development that focused on black youth.

In her autobiography, Parks makes it abundantly clear that she does not regret rejecting the complacent life. Her success as an activist has enabled, strengthened, and affirmed the efforts of the activists whom she worked alongside, as well as those who came in her wake. The autobiography is a testament to the power of collective action, and an optimistic take on the future of America’s civil rights.