The "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement" Has Died

Rosa Parks, "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement" is dead at the age of 92. Ms. Parks passed away in her home in Detroit Monday night from natural causes. She was surrounded by her family and loved ones. According to Parks' attorney, Shirley Kaigler, she had taken a nap and "just fell asleep and didn't wake up."
Rosa Parks, a pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement, was born in 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. On December 1, 1955, Parks made history by bravely refusing when a white man demanded that she give her seat to him as the Jim Crow laws of the day dictated. She was arrested, thrown in jail, and fined fourteen dollars. Her arrest inspired a 381-day Montgomery bus boycott organized by a 26 year-old Baptist minister named Reverend King. The bus boycott marked the start of the Civil Rights Movement as we know it today.

Rosa Parks was active in the NAACP, received numerous awards, and worked tirelessly even after her retirement to inspire today's youth through her organizations and publications.

The city of Detroit is planning a public memorial in honor of Rosa Parks on December 1, 2005. This year will mark the 50th anniversary of her heroic act of defiance, ironically, the simple act of sitting down. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick so aptly noted, "She stood up by sitting down. I'm only standing here because of her."