Mark Civil Rights Anniversary with Rosa Parks Bio

If Google can mark the 55^th anniversary of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks with a Google doodle, I can certainly do my part with an honorable mention and a referral to a Rosa Parks biography featured online at Big Universe’s children’s picture book website.

On Dec. 1, 1955, 42-year-old seamstress Rosa Parks made a bold stand when she refused to give up her seat on the No. 2857 bus in Montgomery, Ala. Racial segregation was still pervasive in the South. She was sitting in her designated section, when the bus’s driver asked her to stand so he could give the seat to a white passenger. Her refusal cost her a job and an arrest record, but sparked a yearlong bus system boycott lead by Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Today, people call Rosa the mother of the Civil Rights Movement. She sat down to show the world how to stand up,” reads the text in “Rosa Parks: A Life of Courage,” a children’s book produced by Bellwether Publishing. This leveled biography is a No. 4 Blastoff! Reader with a glossary and additional resources listed on Pages 23-24.

Parks was not only an advocate for civil rights, but also for education. She co-founded the Rosa L. Parks Scholarship Foundation for Michigan high schoolers headed for college. Most of her speaking fees were donated to this cause.

“I always encourage children to stay in school, get good grades and to believe in themselves,” said Parks in an interview. “Of course they should take care of their health and keep themselves from certain things that would be detrimental to them either physically or mentally. They should be sure to get the best education that they can and choose careers that they can be progressive in as they go into their adulthood.” (To read more of this interview, click the link below.) 

 Rosa Parks was the recipient of numerous awards later in life. According to Wikipedia:

“On September 9, 1996, President Bill Clinton presented Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given by the U.S. executive branch. In 1998, she became the first recipient of the International Freedom Conductor Award given by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The next year, Parks was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award given by the U.S. legislative branch and received the Detroit-Windsor International Freedom Festival Freedom Award.”

Parks lived to 92 years of age. Upon her death she was posthumously honored by the United States Senate, who passed a resolution allowing her to lie in state in the Capitol’s Rotunda. An estimated 50,000 people paid tribute there with additional memorial services following.

Rosa Parks Teaching Tool Links

• A smiling Rosa Parks coloring sheet
• A standup bus craft pattern (without faces in the windows) or with faces
• Rosa Parks “Did you know…?” card templates
• Rosa Parks Fact Sheet/Time Line
• Text of Rosa Parks interview on the Scholastic website
• Rosa Parks Related Lesson Plan resource list