Rosa Parks - Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://www.achievement.org:80/achiever/rosa-parks","20190103164055","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1546533655"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <title>Rosa Parks - Academy of Achievement</title>  <meta name="description" content="Rosa Parks, the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement" was one of the most important citizens of the 20th century. Mrs. Parks was a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama when, in December of 1955, she refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. The bus driver had her arrested. She was tried and convicted of violating a local ordinance. Her act sparked a citywide boycott of the bus system by blacks that lasted more than a year. The boycott raised an unknown clergyman named Martin Luther King, Jr., to national prominence and resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation on city buses. Over the next four decades, she helped make her fellow Americans aware of the history of the civil rights struggle. This pioneer in the struggle for racial equality was the recipient of innumerable honors, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her example remains an inspiration to freedom-loving people everywhere."/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Rosa Parks - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">Rosa Parks, the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement" was one of the most important citizens of the 20th century. Mrs. Parks was a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama when, in December of 1955, she refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. The bus driver had her arrested. She was tried and convicted of violating a local ordinance.</p> <p class="inputText">Her act sparked a citywide boycott of the bus system by blacks that lasted more than a year. The boycott raised an unknown clergyman named Martin Luther King, Jr., to national prominence and resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation on city buses. Over the next four decades, she helped make her fellow Americans aware of the history of the civil rights struggle. This pioneer in the struggle for racial equality was the recipient of innumerable honors, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her example remains an inspiration to freedom-loving people everywhere.</p>"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/parks-rosa-2-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">Rosa Parks, the "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement" was one of the most important citizens of the 20th century. Mrs. Parks was a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama when, in December of 1955, she refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. The bus driver had her arrested. She was tried and convicted of violating a local ordinance.</p> <p class="inputText">Her act sparked a citywide boycott of the bus system by blacks that lasted more than a year. The boycott raised an unknown clergyman named Martin Luther King, Jr., to national prominence and resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation on city buses. Over the next four decades, she helped make her fellow Americans aware of the history of the civil rights struggle. This pioneer in the struggle for racial equality was the recipient of innumerable honors, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her example remains an inspiration to freedom-loving people everywhere.</p>"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Rosa Parks - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/parks-rosa-2-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg"/> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190103164055\/http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"WebSite","@id":"#website","url":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190103164055\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/","name":"Academy of Achievement","alternateName":"A museum of living history","potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190103164055\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/search\/{search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}</script> <script 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ratio-container__text container"> <div class="feature-area__text-inner text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">Rosa Parks</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">Pioneer of Civil Rights</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-1776 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-activist"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane fade in active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="banner clearfix"> <div class="banner--single clearfix"> <div class="col-lg-8 col-lg-offset-2"> <div class="banner__image__container"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055/https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-road-to-civil-rights/id502858497?mt=13" target="_blank"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <img class="lazyload banner__image" data-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/256X256-civilrightsbook-newwebsite-BE002421-Corbis-coretta-march-190x190.jpg" alt=""/> </figure> </a> </div> <div class="banner__text__container"> <h3 class="serif-3 banner__headline"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055/https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-road-to-civil-rights/id502858497?mt=13" target="_blank"> Download our free multi-touch iBook <i>The Road to Civil Rights</i> — for your Mac or iOS device on Apple's iTunes U </a> </h3> <p class="sans-6 banner__text m-b-0"><i>The Road to Civil Rights</i> iBook takes readers on a journey through one of the most significant periods in America’s history. Travel through the timeline and listen to members of the American Academy of Achievement as they discuss the key events that shaped the future of the country.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="banner--single clearfix"> <div class="col-lg-8 col-lg-offset-2"> <div class="banner__image__container"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <img class="lazyload banner__image" data-src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/WhatItTakes_parks_johnson_256-190x190.jpg" alt=""/> </figure> </a> </div> <div class="banner__text__container"> <h3 class="serif-3 banner__headline"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> Listen to this achiever on <i>What It Takes</i> </a> </h3> <p class="sans-6 banner__text m-b-0"><i>What It Takes</i> is an audio podcast on iTunes produced by the American Academy of Achievement featuring intimate, revealing conversations with influential leaders in the diverse fields of endeavor: music, science and exploration, sports, film, technology, literature, the military and social justice.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">Two policemen came on the bus, and one asked me if the driver had told me to stand…He wanted to know why I didn't stand, and I told him I didn't think I should have to stand up. I asked him, why did they push us around? He said, 'I don't know, but the law is the law and you are under arrest.'</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">Standing Up For Freedom</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> February 4, 1913 </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Death</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> October 24, 2005 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p class="p2"><span class="s1">Most historians date the beginning of the modern civil rights movement in the United States to December 1, 1955. That was the day when an unknown seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. This brave woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested and fined for violating a city ordinance, but her lonely act of defiance began a movement that ended legal segregation in America, and made her an inspiration to freedom-loving people everywhere.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_8804" style="width: 562px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8804 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-025.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8804 size-full lazyload" alt="Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama at the time of the 1955 bus boycott. (National Archives)" width="562" height="800" data-sizes="(max-width: 562px) 100vw, 562px" data-srcset="/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-025.jpg 562w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-025-267x380.jpg 267w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-025-534x760.jpg 534w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-025.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama during the 1955 bus boycott. The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a seminal event in the Civil Rights Movement and was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. (National Archives)</figcaption></figure><p class="p2"><span class="s1">Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama to James McCauley, a carpenter, and Leona McCauley, a teacher. At the age of two she moved to her grandparents’ farm in Pine Level, Alabama with her mother and younger brother, Sylvester. At the age of 11 she enrolled in the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, a private school founded by liberal-minded women from the northern United States. The school’s philosophy of self-worth was consistent with Leona McCauley’s advice to “take advantage of the opportunities, no matter how few they were.”</span></p> <figure id="attachment_8808" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignright"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8808 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Rosa_Parks_Booking.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8808 size-full lazyload" alt="Rosa Parks booking photo following her February 1956 arrest during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. (Alabama Department of Archives and History)" width="540" height="719" data-sizes="(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px" data-srcset="/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Rosa_Parks_Booking.jpg 540w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Rosa_Parks_Booking-285x380.jpg 285w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Rosa_Parks_Booking.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Rosa Parks booking photo following her February 1956 arrest during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. She refused to yield her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus. She was arrested and fined. The boycott of public buses by blacks, began on the day of Parks’s court hearing and lasted 381 days. (© Alabama Department of Archives)</figcaption></figure><p>Opportunities were few indeed. “Back then,” Mrs. Parks recalled in an interview, “we didn’t have any civil rights. It was just a matter of survival, of existing from one day to the next. I remember going to sleep as a girl hearing the Klan ride at night and hearing a lynching and being afraid the house would burn down.” In the same interview, she cited her lifelong acquaintance with fear as the reason for her relative fearlessness in deciding to appeal her conviction during the bus boycott. “I didn’t have any special fear,” she said. “It was more of a relief to know that I wasn’t alone.”</p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">After attending Alabama State Teachers College, the young Rosa settled in Montgomery, with her husband, Raymond Parks. The couple joined the local chapter of the NAACP and worked quietly for many years to improve the lot of African Americans in the segregated South. </span><span class="s1">“I worked on numerous cases with the NAACP,” Mrs. Parks recalled, “but we did not get the publicity. There were cases of flogging, peonage, murder, and rape. We didn’t seem to have too many successes. It was more a matter of trying to challenge the powers that be, and to let it be known that we did not wish to continue being second-class citizens.”</span></p> <figure id="attachment_30089" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-30089 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-GettyImages-515301568_master.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-30089 size-full lazyload" alt="Rosa Parks at a 1956 press conference. On December 20, 1956, when a federal ruling, the case Browder v. Gayle took effect, and led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses to be unconstitutional. Many important figures in the Civil Rights Movement took part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, including Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ralph Abernathy. (Bettman)" width="2280" height="1928" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-GettyImages-515301568_master.jpg 2280w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-GettyImages-515301568_master-380x321.jpg 380w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-GettyImages-515301568_master-760x643.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-GettyImages-515301568_master.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Rosa Parks speaks with an interviewer as she arrives at court with Reverend Edward Nixon and 91 other African Americans on trial for violation of a 1921 anti-boycott law. They were part of a city-wide boycott of buses by African Americans ignited by Rosa Parks’ arrest for violation of the “Jim Crow” law forbidding African Americans from sitting with whites at the front of city buses. In June of 1956, a three-judge U.S. District Court panel ruled that segregation on Alabama’s intrastate buses was unconstitutional, citing <em>Brown v. Board of Education</em> as precedent for the verdict. In November, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the District Court’s decision. On December 17, 1956, the United States Supreme Court rejected city and state appeals to reconsider their decision, and soon thereafter the order for integrated buses arrived in Montgomery. Three days later, the Montgomery Bus Boycott concluded.</figcaption></figure> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">The bus incident led to the formation of the Montgomery Improvement Association, led by the young pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The association called for a boycott of the city-owned bus company. The boycott lasted 381 days and brought Mrs. Parks, Dr. King, and their cause to the attention of the world. A Supreme Court decision struck down the Montgomery ordinance under which Mrs. Parks had been fined, and outlawed racial segregation on public transportation.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_47281" style="width: 2545px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-47281 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-GettyImages-525578732.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-47281 size-full lazyload" alt="" width="2545" height="3800" data-sizes="(max-width: 2545px) 100vw, 2545px" data-srcset="/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-GettyImages-525578732.jpg 2545w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-GettyImages-525578732-255x380.jpg 255w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-GettyImages-525578732-509x760.jpg 509w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-GettyImages-525578732.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Rosa Parks at the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights Marches. The Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights Marches occurred in 1965 and were marked by violent attacks on the marchers by state and local police. (Steve Schapiro)</figcaption></figure><p class="p2"><span class="s1">In 1957, Mrs. Parks and her husband moved to Detroit, Michigan, where Mrs. Parks served on the staff of U.S. Representative John Conyers. The Southern Christian Leadership Council established an annual Rosa Parks Freedom Award in her honor.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_47226" style="width: 1596px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47226 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-PARKS-ROSA-Screen-Shot-2018-05-30-at-1.23.05-PM1.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-47226 lazyload" alt="" width="1596" height="1182" data-sizes="(max-width: 1596px) 100vw, 1596px" data-srcset="/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-PARKS-ROSA-Screen-Shot-2018-05-30-at-1.23.05-PM1.jpg 1596w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-PARKS-ROSA-Screen-Shot-2018-05-30-at-1.23.05-PM1-380x281.jpg 380w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-PARKS-ROSA-Screen-Shot-2018-05-30-at-1.23.05-PM1-760x563.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/wp-PARKS-ROSA-Screen-Shot-2018-05-30-at-1.23.05-PM1.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1996: Rosa Parks and longtime assistant, Elaine Steele, at Academy of Achievement program in Sun Valley, Idaho.</figcaption></figure><p class="p2"><span class="s1">After the death of her husband in 1977, Mrs. Parks founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. The Institute sponsors an annual summer program for teenagers called Pathways to Freedom. The young people tour the country in buses, under adult supervision, learning the history of their country and of the civil rights movement. President Clinton presented Rosa Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. She received a Congressional Gold Medal in 1999.</span></p> <figure id="attachment_8807" style="width: 1517px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8807 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/rosa-parks.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8807 size-full lazyload" alt="June 15, 1999: Rosa Parks when she was presented with a Congressional Gold Medal by President Bill Clinton." width="1517" height="1839" data-sizes="(max-width: 1517px) 100vw, 1517px" data-srcset="/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/rosa-parks.jpg 1517w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/rosa-parks-313x380.jpg 313w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/rosa-parks-627x760.jpg 627w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/rosa-parks.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">June 15, 1999: Rosa Parks when she was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal by President Bill Clinton.</figcaption></figure><p class="p2"><span class="s1">When asked if she was happy living in retirement, Rosa Parks replied, “I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day, but I don’t think there is any such thing as complete happiness. It pains me that there is still a lot of Klan activity and racism. I think when you say you’re happy, you have everything that you need and everything that you want, and nothing more to wish for. I haven’t reached that stage yet.”</span></p> <p class="p2"><span class="s1">Mrs. Parks spent her last years living quietly in Detroit, where she died in 2005 at the age of 92. After her death, her casket was placed in the rotunda of the United States Capitol for two days, so the nation could pay its respects to the woman whose courage had changed the lives of so many. She is the only woman and second African American in American history to lie in state at the Capitol, an honor usually reserved for Presidents of the United States.</span></p></body></html> <div class="clearfix"> <figure class="achiever__video-block"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item " width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/n82rgdbM9G4?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=160&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video__copy m-t-1"> <p><strong>View and listen to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered on the steps of Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963.</strong></p> </figcaption> </figure> <figure class="achiever__video-block"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/IXlYwJPJtkI?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=81&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ATV-Angelou-in-Pink-Red-Justice-Citizen.00_27_21_09.Still002-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ATV-Angelou-in-Pink-Red-Justice-Citizen.00_27_21_09.Still002-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video__copy m-t-1"> <p class="p1">Member of the American Academy of Achievement, poet and best-selling author, <span class="s2">Maya Angelou</span> shares her interpretation of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.</p> </figcaption> </figure> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 1995 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.activist">Activist</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> February 4, 1913 </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Death</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> October 24, 2005 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p class="inputTextFirst">Rosa Parks, the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement” was one of the most important citizens of the 20th century. Mrs. Parks was a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama when, in December of 1955, she refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger. The bus driver had her arrested. She was tried and convicted of violating a local ordinance.</p> <p class="inputText">Her act sparked a citywide boycott of the bus system by blacks that lasted more than a year. The boycott raised an unknown clergyman named Martin Luther King, Jr., to national prominence and resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation on city buses. Over the next four decades, she helped make her fellow Americans aware of the history of the civil rights struggle. This pioneer in the struggle for racial equality was the recipient of innumerable honors, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her example remains an inspiration to freedom-loving people everywhere.</p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hqp4sXpKbGA?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=1249&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Parks-Rosa-1995-MasterEdit.00_11_27_11.Still012-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Parks-Rosa-1995-MasterEdit.00_11_27_11.Still012-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">Standing Up For Freedom</h2> <div class="sans-2">Williamsburg, Virginia</div> <div class="sans-2">June 2, 1995</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>In 1955, you refused to give up your seat to a white passenger on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Your act inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the event historians call the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Could you tell us exactly what happened that day?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/VHEJH65F4Bk?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Parks-Rosa-1995-MasterEdit.00_20_38_21.Still015-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Parks-Rosa-1995-MasterEdit.00_20_38_21.Still015-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/courage/">Courage</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">Rosa Parks: I was arrested on December 1, 1955 for refusing to stand up on the orders of the bus driver, after the white seats had been occupied in the front. And of course, I was not in the front of the bus as many people have written and spoken that I was — that I got on the bus and took the front seat, but I did not. I took a seat that was just back of where the white people were sitting, in fact, the last seat. A man was next to the window, and I took an aisle seat and there were two women across. We went on undisturbed until about the second or third stop when some white people boarded the bus and left one man standing. And when the driver noticed him standing, he told us to stand up and let him have those seats. He referred to them as front seats. And when the other three people — after some hesitancy — stood up, he wanted to know if I was going to stand up, and I told him I was not. And he told me he would have me arrested. And I told him he may do that. And of course, he did.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Two policemen came on the bus and one asked me if the driver had told me to stand and I said, “Yes.” And he wanted to know why I didn’t stand, and I told him I didn’t think I should have to stand up. And then I asked him, why did they push us around? And he said, and I quote him, “I don’t know, but the law is the law and you are under arrest.” And with that, I got off the bus, under arrest.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_29076" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-29076 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp2-parksonbusimg063.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-29076 lazyload" alt="After the Supreme Court decision, Rosa Parks rides at the front of the bus. (© UPI/Bettman)" width="2280" height="1873" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp2-parksonbusimg063.jpg 2280w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp2-parksonbusimg063-380x312.jpg 380w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp2-parksonbusimg063-760x624.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp2-parksonbusimg063.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">December 21, 1956: After the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, Rosa Parks rides at the front of the bus. (UPI)</figcaption></figure><p><strong>Did they take you down to the police station?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: Yes. A policeman wanted the driver to swear out a warrant, if he was willing, and he told him that he would sign a warrant when he finished his trip and delivered his passengers, and he would come straight down to the City Hall to sign a warrant against me.</p> <figure id="attachment_8809" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8809 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-RosaParksBus_Credit-Henry-Ford.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8809 size-full lazyload" alt="The No. 2857 bus on which Parks was riding before her arrest (a GM "old-look" transit bus, serial number 1132), is now a museum exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum." width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-RosaParksBus_Credit-Henry-Ford.jpg 2280w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-RosaParksBus_Credit-Henry-Ford-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-RosaParksBus_Credit-Henry-Ford-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-RosaParksBus_Credit-Henry-Ford.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The No. 2857 bus on which Rosa Parks was riding before her arrest on December 1, 1955 (a GM “old-look” transit bus, serial number 1132), is now an iconic museum exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>Did he do that?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: Yes, he did.</p> <figure id="attachment_8795" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8795 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-001.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8795 size-full lazyload" alt="Rosa Parks approaches the Montgomery courthouse to enter her plea on Feb. 22, 1956. (© UPI/Bettman)" width="2280" height="1766" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-001.jpg 2280w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-001-380x294.jpg 380w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-001-760x589.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-001.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Rosa Parks approaches the Montgomery, Alabama courthouse to enter her plea on February 22, 1956. On that date, she was arrested again, along with 88 others, for boycotting without “a just or legal excuse.” (UPI/Bettman)</figcaption></figure><p><strong>Did the public response begin immediately?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: Actually, it began as soon as it was announced.</p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/vGb1n0HiWpE?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Parks-Rosa-Upscale-1of1.00_00_03_19.Still001-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Parks-Rosa-Upscale-1of1.00_00_03_19.Still001-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">It was put in the paper that I had been arrested. Mr. E.D. Nixon was the legal redress chairman of the Montgomery branch of the NAACP, and he made a number of calls during the night, called a number of ministers. I was arrested on a Thursday evening, and on Friday evening is when they had the meeting at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King was the pastor. A number of citizens came, and I told them the story and from then on, it became news about my being arrested. My trial was December 5, when they found me guilty. The lawyers Fred Gray and Charles Langford, who represented me, filed an appeal and, of course, I didn’t pay any fine. We set a meeting at the Holt Street Baptist Church on the evening of December 5th, because December 5th was the day the people stayed off in large numbers and did not ride the bus.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>In fact, most of the buses, I think all of them were just about empty with the exception of maybe very, very few people.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>When they found out that one day’s protest had kept people off the bus, it came to a vote and unanimously, it was decided that they would not ride the buses anymore until changes for the better were made.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_8802" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-8802 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-023.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-8802 size-full lazyload" alt="E.D. Nixon, former president of the Alabama NAACP, escorts Rosa Parks to the Montgomery courthouse in 1956. Mrs. Parks was tried for her role in the boycott of the bus system. The boycott began the day she was fined for failing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. (AP Images/Gene Herrick)" width="2280" height="1879" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-023.jpg 2280w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-023-380x313.jpg 380w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-023-760x626.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-023.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">E.D. Nixon, former president of the Alabama NAACP, escorts Rosa Parks to the Montgomery courthouse in 1956. Mrs. Parks was tried for her role in the boycott of the bus system. The boycott began the day she was fined for failing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. In <em>Stride Toward Freedom</em>, Dr. King’s 1958 memoir of the boycott, he declared the real meaning of the Montgomery Bus Boycott to be the power of a growing self-respect to animate the struggle for civil rights. Dr. King recalled that “Mrs. Parks was ideal for the role assigned to her by history,” and because “her character was impeccable and her dedication deep-rooted.” (AP Images/Gene Herrick)</figcaption></figure><p><strong>When you refused to stand up, did you have a sense of anger at having to do it?</strong></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/xJ3keyg9SRw?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=62&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Parks-Rosa-1995-MasterEdit.00_09_57_27.Still010-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Parks-Rosa-1995-MasterEdit.00_09_57_27.Still010-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/integrity/">Integrity</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">Rosa Parks: I don’t remember feeling that anger, but I did feel determined to take this as an opportunity to let it be known that I did not want to be treated in that manner and that people have endured it far too long. However, I did not have at the moment of my arrest any idea of how the people would react. And since they reacted favorably, I was willing to go with that. We formed what was known as the Montgomery Improvement Association, on the afternoon of December 5th. Dr. Martin Luther King became very prominent in this movement, so he was chosen as a spokesman and the president of the Montgomery Improvement Association.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_8801" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-8801 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-022.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-8801 lazyload" alt="Rosa Parks and E.D. Nixon, former president of the Alabama NAACP, arrive at court in Montgomery, Alabama, 1956. Mrs. Parks and 91 other defendants, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were indicted for organizing a boycott of the city's bus system. (AP Images/Gene Herrick)" width="2280" height="2833" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-022.jpg 2280w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-022-306x380.jpg 306w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-022-612x760.jpg 612w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-022.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Rosa Parks and E.D. Nixon, former president of the Alabama NAACP, arrive at court in Montgomery, Alabama, 1956. Mrs. Parks and 88 other defendants, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were indicted for organizing the boycott.</figcaption></figure><p class="p1"><span class="s1"><b>What are your thoughts when you look back on that time in your life. Any regrets?</b></span></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/xSoHnQbwJis?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=25&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Parks-Rosa-1995-MasterEdit.00_07_43_07.Still011-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Parks-Rosa-1995-MasterEdit.00_07_43_07.Still011-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">As I look back on those days, it’s just like a dream. The only thing that bothered me was that we waited so long to make this protest and to let it be known wherever we go that all of us should be free and equal and have all opportunities that others should have.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p><strong>What personal characteristics do you think are most important to accomplish something?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: I think it’s important to believe in yourself and when you feel like you have the right idea, to stay with it. And of course, it all depends upon the cooperation of the people around. People were very cooperative in getting off the buses. And from that, of course, we went on to other things. I, along with Mrs. Field, who was here with me, organized the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. Raymond, my husband—he is now deceased—was another person who inspired me, because he believed in freedom and equality himself.</p> <figure id="attachment_23270" style="width: 2998px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-23270 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-AP8001140287.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-23270 lazyload" alt="January 14, 1980: Rosa Parks, right, is kissed by Coretta Scott King, as she received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Non-violent Peace Prize in Atlanta. Parks, who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus nearly 25 years ago, is the first woman to win the award. (AP Photo)" width="2998" height="2003" data-sizes="(max-width: 2998px) 100vw, 2998px" data-srcset="/web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-AP8001140287.jpg 2998w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-AP8001140287-380x254.jpg 380w, /web/20190103164055im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-AP8001140287-760x508.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-AP8001140287.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1980: Rosa Parks is kissed by Coretta Scott King, as she received the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize in Atlanta. Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus nearly 25 years ago. (AP Photo)</figcaption></figure><p><strong>You were married during the bus incident.</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: Yes, I was.</p> <p><strong>How old were you?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: When I was arrested, I was 43 years old. There were so many needs for us to continue to work for freedom, because I didn’t think that we should have to be treated in the way we were, just for the sake of white supremacy, because it was designed to make them feel superior, and us feel inferior. That was the whole plan of racially enforced segregation.</p> <p><strong>What was it like in Montgomery when you were growing up?</strong></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20190103164055if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/H3r6gnrL2_o?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light&start=0&end=103&version=3" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Parks-Rosa-1995-MasterEdit.00_06_26_26.Still012-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Parks-Rosa-1995-MasterEdit.00_06_26_26.Still012-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/courage/">Courage</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p class="p1">Rosa Parks: Back in Montgomery during my growing up there, it was completely legally enforced racial segregation, and of course, I struggled against it for a long time.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I felt that it was not right to be deprived of freedom when we were living in the Home of the Brave and Land of the Free.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Of course, when I refused to stand up, on the orders of the bus driver, for a white passenger to take the seat, and I was not sitting in the front of the bus, as so many people have said, and neither was my feet hurting, as many people have said. But I made up my mind that I would not give in any longer to legally-imposed racial segregation and of course my arrest brought about the protests for more than a year.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And in doing so, Dr. Martin Luther King became prominent because he was the leader of our protests along with many other people.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>And I’m very glad that this experience I had then brought about a movement that triggered across the United States and in other places.</p> </div> </div>     <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>What people inspired you as a child?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: My family, I would say, my mother, and my maternal grandparents. I grew up with them. My mother was a teacher in a little school, and she believed in freedom and equality for people, and did not have the notion that we were supposed to live as we did, under legally enforced racial segregation. She didn’t believe in it.</p> <p><strong>How did she impart that to you?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: Just by her attitude and the way she talked. We were human beings and we should be treated as such.</p> <p><strong>She instilled that feeling in you.</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: It was just the way I grew up. Yes, she did. Of course, my grandfather had the same ideas, as well as my grandmother.</p> <p><strong>What was their background?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: Both of them were born before the emancipation, before slavery ended. And they suffered a lot, as children they were in slavery and of course, after slavery was not that much better, but I guess it was some better. They were farmers in a rural area in Alabama.</p> <p><strong>They must have suffered.</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: Yes, especially my grandfather.</p> <p><strong>Was there a teacher that influenced you?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: My mother was a teacher and I went to the same school where she was teaching. My very first teacher was Miss Sally Hill, and I liked her very much. In fact, I liked school when I was very young, in spite of the fact that it was a one-room school for students all ages, from the very young to teens, as long as they went to school. It was only a short term for us, five months every year, instead of the regular nine months every year.</p> <p><strong>You still flourished in this school, despite all that.</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: I liked to read books anyway, and my mother taught me to read even before I began school.</p> <p><strong>What books did you like to read?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: Mostly the little stories that they had in the school books, and fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood, and those stories, just what they had for young children.</p> <p><strong>Do you think reading is important?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: Yes, it’s very important. And I always liked to read, especially historic books. I still do like to read.</p> <p><strong>What would you like to tell us about your life since the bus boycott?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: I would have to take longer than a minute to give my whole synopsis of my life, but I want to let you know that all of us should be free and equal and have equal opportunity and that is what I’m trying to instill and encourage and inspire young people to reach their highest potential.</p> <p><strong>Tell us about the goals of the Parks Institute.</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: We work with young people, from the ages of 11 to 17. Our main program is the Pathways to Freedom. And we’ll be going from Memphis, Tennessee through ten other states, and Washington, DC, and to Canada. It began July 13th and ends August 8th. We hope to take as many young people and their chaperons as possible throughout these areas, and stop and have workshops and programs. They’ll be traveling in buses, and we hope that will inspire and give them a sense of history and also to encourage them to be concerned about their self and history and motivated to reach their highest potential. We always encourage them to have a spiritual awareness, because I feel that with the spirit within and our belief in ourselves and our faith in God that we will overcome many obstacles that we could not with negative attitudes. I want to always be concerned with being positive, and them being positive and believing in themselves, and believing that they should be good citizens and an asset to our country and for the world. And I believe in peace too, and not violence.</p> <p><strong>What has the American Dream meant to you?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: I think the American Dream should be to have a good life, and to live well, and to be a good citizen. I think that should apply to all of us. That it is the land of the free and the home of the brave, and I believe it should be just that for all people. Who can think of themselves as human beings and that they will enjoy the blessings of the freedom of this country.</p> <p><strong>Are we moving as quickly as you might like in that direction?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: We still have a long way to go, we still have many obstacles and many challenges to face. It’s far from perfect, and it may never be, but I think as long as we do the best we can to improve conditions, then people will be benefited.</p> <p><strong>You don’t get negative about the negative things.</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: No, I don’t. I try to not think of those things that we cannot control, but I think if we continue to work with positive attitudes, conditions will be better for more people.</p> <p><strong>Tell me about your husband.</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: He believed in freedom and equality and all the things that would improve conditions.</p> <p><strong>He was an inspiration to you.</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: Yes, he was.</p> <p><strong>When did he die?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: In August of 1977.</p> <p><strong>What advice would you give to a young person who wants to make a difference?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: The advice I would give any young person is, first of all, to rid themselves of prejudice against other people and to be concerned about what they can do to help others. And of course, to get a good education, and take advantage of the opportunities that they have. In fact, there are more opportunities today than when I was young. And whatever they do, to think positively and be concerned about other people, to think in terms of them being able to not succumb to many of the temptations, especially the use of drugs and substances that will destroy the physical health, as well as mental health.</p> <p><strong>What would you say to a kid who’s in trouble now?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: The reason we start with them so young is to try to get them a good family life, before they get into that area. Of course there are those who maybe have strayed away, and I would certainly advise them to find some means of helping themselves, even if they’ve gotten into some problems.</p> <p><strong>Family is important to you.</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: Yes, it is, very important. Of course, we have so many broken homes now. Young people need some means of being encouraged and to try to find some role models, people in school, in church, and other organizations. They need to be organized to work together, instead of being so scattered about and not having any positive outlook on life.</p> <p><strong>Did you feel Dr. King had a special gift?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: Well, when I first met him it was before I was arrested. I met him in August of 1955, when he came to be the guest speaker at an NAACP meeting and I was secretary. I was very impressed with his delivery as a speaker and, of course, his genuine friendliness as a person. And his attitude, of course, was to work and do whatever he could in the community for the church to make a difference in the way of life we had at that time. And I was really impressed by his leadership, because he seemed to be a very genuine and very concerned person, and, I thought, a real Christian.</p> <p><strong>Did it surprise you when he became a national hero?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: No, not really, because I just felt that he filled the position so well. He was the type of person that people really gravitated towards and they seemed to like him personally, as well as his leadership.</p> <p><strong>A warm person?</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: Yes, he was.</p> <p><strong>It has been an honor to sit with you here, today. Thank you so much for spending this time with us, Mrs. Parks.</strong></p> <p>Rosa Parks: Thank you.</p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Rosa Parks Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>23 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-RosaParksBus_Credit-Henry-Ford.jpg" data-image-caption="The No. 2857 bus on which Rosa Parks was riding before her arrest on December 1, 1955 (a GM "old-look" transit bus, serial number 1132), is now an iconic museum exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan." data-image-copyright="wordpress-RosaParksBus_Credit-Henry-Ford" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-RosaParksBus_Credit-Henry-Ford-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-RosaParksBus_Credit-Henry-Ford-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.3314814814815" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Rosa_Parks_Booking.jpg" data-image-caption="Rosa Parks booking photo following her February 1956 arrest during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. (Alabama Department of Archives and History)" data-image-copyright="wordpress-Rosa_Parks_Booking" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Rosa_Parks_Booking-285x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/wordpress-Rosa_Parks_Booking.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2121212121212" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/rosa-parks.jpg" data-image-caption="Rosa Parks in June 1999, when she was presented with a Congressional Gold Medal." data-image-copyright="rosaparks" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/rosa-parks-313x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/rosa-parks-627x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.73815789473684" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-026.jpg" data-image-caption="Rosa Parks is fingerprinted by police Lt. D.H. Lackey in Montgomery, Alabama, on February 22, 1956, two months after refusing to give up her seat on a bus for a white passenger on December 1, 1955. She was arrested with several others who violated segregation laws. Parks's refusal to give up her seat led to a boycott of buses by blacks in December 1955, a tactic organized by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which ended after the U.S. Supreme Court deemed that all segregation was unlawful, on December 20, 1956. (AP Photo/Gene Herrick)" data-image-copyright="ROSA PARKS" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-026-380x281.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-026-760x561.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4232209737828" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-025.jpg" data-image-caption="Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama at the time of the 1955 bus boycott. (National Archives)" data-image-copyright="par0-025" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-025-267x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-025-534x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4643545279383" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-024.jpg" data-image-caption="Rosa Parks attends the March on Washington in 1963. (© Bob Adelman/Magnum Photos)" data-image-copyright="par0-024" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-024-259x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-024-519x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.82368421052632" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-023.jpg" data-image-caption="Rosa Parks arrives at the Montgomery courthouse in 1956 to face trial for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. (AP Images/Gene Herrick)" data-image-copyright="par0-023" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-023-380x313.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-023-760x626.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.2418300653595" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-022.jpg" data-image-caption="Rosa Parks and E.D. Nixon, former president of the Alabama NAACP, arrive at court in Montgomery, Alabama, 1956. Mrs. Parks and 91 other defendants, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were indicted for organizing a boycott of the city's bus system. (AP Images/Gene Herrick)" data-image-copyright="par0-022" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-022-306x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-022-612x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.0704225352113" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-016.jpg" data-image-caption="Rosa Parks in Montgomery after the Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation on public transit. (© UPI/Bettman)" data-image-copyright="par0-016" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-016-355x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-016-710x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.94605263157895" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-015.jpg" data-image-caption="Rosa Parks leaving the Montgomery courthouse with her attorney, Charles Langford. Feb. 22, 1956. (Bettman/Corbis)" data-image-copyright="par0-015" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-015-380x360.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-015-760x719.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.75" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-004.jpg" data-image-caption="After the Supreme Court upheld Judge Johnson's decision, Rosa Parks rides at the front of the bus. (© UPI/Bettman)" data-image-copyright="par0-004" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-004-380x285.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-004-760x570.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.74736842105263" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-003.jpg" data-image-caption="Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. after their victory in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. (© UPI/Bettman)" data-image-copyright="par0-003" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-003-380x284.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-003-760x568.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.775" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-001.jpg" data-image-caption="Rosa Parks approaches the Montgomery courthouse to enter her plea on February 22, 1956. (© UPI/Bettman)" data-image-copyright="Rosa Parks Walking to Jail" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-001-380x294.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-001-760x589.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.79078947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-050-parks-AP561221077.jpg" data-image-caption="Black and white passengers board a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama after the Supreme Court's order to integrate the buses goes into effect. (AP Photo/Harold Valentine)" data-image-copyright="SCOTUS Rules For Public Transit Integration 1956" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-050-parks-AP561221077-380x301.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-050-parks-AP561221077-760x601.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.78421052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-051-parks-AP560426090.jpg" data-image-caption="The bus driver is all alone as his empty bus moves through downtown Montgomery, Alabama, April 26, 1956, as blacks continue to boycott the buses, even though the bus company has ordered an end to segregation. However, police have threatened arrest if the blacks desegregate. (AP Photo/Horace Cort)" data-image-copyright="Civil Rights Bus Boycott 1956" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-051-parks-AP560426090-380x298.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/par0-051-parks-AP560426090-760x596.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66666666666667" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/par0-008.jpg" data-image-caption="The struggle goes on. Rosa Parks in her seventies. (© UPI/Bettman)" data-image-copyright="The struggle goes on. Rosa Parks in her seventies. (© UPI/Bettman)" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/par0-008-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/par0-008.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66356589147287" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/par0-010.jpg" data-image-caption="Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. conducts a meeting of the Montgomery Improvement Association in 1955. Rosa Parks is seated in the front row. (© Don Cravens, Life magazine)" data-image-copyright="par0-010" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/par0-010-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/par0-010.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.671826625387" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/par0-019.jpg" data-image-caption="Rosa Parks riding on a newly integrated bus following the Supreme Court ruling ending segregation of Montgomery buses. (Photo by Don Cravens/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="par0-019" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/par0-019-380x255.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/par0-019.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65592972181552" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/par0-020-1.jpg" data-image-caption="Rosa Parks at work as a seamstress, shortly after the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott, February 1956. (Photo by Don Cravens/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="par0-020" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/par0-020-1-380x249.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/par0-020-1.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66842105263158" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-AP8001140287.jpg" data-image-caption="January 14, 1980: Rosa Parks, right, being kissed by Coretta Scott King, as she received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize in Atlanta. Parks, who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955, was the first woman to win the award. (AP Photo)" data-image-copyright="wp-ap8001140287" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-AP8001140287-380x254.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-AP8001140287-760x508.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.84605263157895" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-GettyImages-515301568_master.jpg" data-image-caption="Rosa Parks at a 1956 press conference. On December 20, 1956, when a federal ruling, the case Browder v. Gayle, took effect and led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws requiring segregated buses to be unconstitutional. Many important figures in the Civil Rights Movement took part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, including Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ralph Abernathy. (Bettman)" data-image-copyright="Rosa Parks Goes to Trial" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-GettyImages-515301568_master-380x321.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-GettyImages-515301568_master-760x643.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.67631578947368" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/wp-Krzyzewski-CoachKpanel_Summit.jpg" data-image-caption="Summit panel discussion with Mike Wallace, Robert H. Schuller, Rosa Parks, Mike Krzyzewski, Naomi Judd." data-image-copyright="wp-krzyzewski-coachkpanel_summit" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/wp-Krzyzewski-CoachKpanel_Summit-380x257.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/07/wp-Krzyzewski-CoachKpanel_Summit-760x514.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4931237721022" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-GettyImages-525578732.jpg" data-image-caption="Rosa Parks at the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights Marches. The Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights Marches occurred in 1965, and were marked by violent attacks on the marchers by state and local police. (Photo by Steve Schapiro/Corbis via Getty Images)" data-image-copyright="Rosa Parks During the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights March" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-GettyImages-525578732-255x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/06/wp-GettyImages-525578732-509x760.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Twitter"><i class="icon-icon_twitter-circle"></i></a></li>  <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-email" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever via Email"><i class="icon-icon_email-circle"></i></a></li> </ul> <time class="editorial-article__last-updated sans-6">This page last revised on June 7, 2018</time> <div class="sans-4"><a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/how-to-cite" target="_blank">How to cite this page</a></div> </footer> </div> <div class="container interview-related-achievers"> <hr class="m-t-3 m-b-3"/> <footer class="clearfix small-blocks text-xs-center"> <h3 class="m-b-3 serif-3">If you are inspired by this achiever’s story, you might also enjoy:</h3> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever the-arts shy-introverted spiritual-religious " data-year-inducted="1990" data-achiever-name="Angelou"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-angelou/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/angelou_760_ac-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/01/angelou_760_ac-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Maya Angelou</div> <div class="achiever-block__known-as text-white sans-6">Poet and Historian</div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="text-white achiever-block__text--bottom"> <div class="achiever-block__year sans-4">Inducted in <span class="year-inducted">1990</span></div> </div> </figcaption> </figure> </a> </div> </div> </div> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever the-arts racism-discrimination small-town-rural-upbringing curious write " data-year-inducted="2001" data-achiever-name="Gaines"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/gaines-007a-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/05/gaines-007a-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Ernest J. 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Fauci, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-norman-foster/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Norman Foster</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/aretha-franklin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Aretha Franklin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leymah-gbowee/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leymah Gbowee</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Glück</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-john-gurdon/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir John Gurdon</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/demis-hassabis-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Demis Hassabis, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kazuo-ishiguro/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kazuo Ishiguro</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/beverly-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Beverly Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dereck-joubert/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dereck Joubert</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Kagame</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-lederman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Lederman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-panetta/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Panetta</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/itzhak-perlman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Itzhak Perlman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. Powell, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/harold-prince/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Harold Prince</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/venki-ramakrishnan-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Venki Ramakrishnan, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-martin-rees/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Martin Rees</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lloyd-richards/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lloyd Richards</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-ride-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally K. Ride, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sonny-rollins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonny Rollins</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-romero/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony Romero</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-rosenquist/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Rosenquist</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pete-rozelle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pete Rozelle</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/bill-russell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Bill Russell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/albie-sachs/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Albie Sachs</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/oliver-sacks-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Oliver Sacks, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jonas-salk-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jonas Salk, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frederick-sanger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick Sanger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-b-schaller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George B. Schaller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/barry-scheck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Barry Scheck</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-evans-schultes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard Evans Schultes, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-h-norman-schwarzkopf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-schwarzman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen A. Schwarzman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/glenn-t-seaborg-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Glenn T. Seaborg, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/neil-sheehan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Neil Sheehan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-alan-shepard-jr/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral Alan B. Shepard, Jr., USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ellen-johnson-sirleaf/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ellen Johnson Sirleaf</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-slim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Slim Helú</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frederick-w-smith/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frederick W. Smith</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-sondheim/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Sondheim</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sonia-sotomayor/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sonia Sotomayor</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wole-soyinka/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wole Soyinka</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/esperanza-spalding/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Esperanza Spalding</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/martha-stewart/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Martha Stewart</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-james-b-stockdale/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral James B. Stockdale, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/hilary-swank/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Hilary Swank</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/amy-tan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Amy Tan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dame-kiri-te-kanawa/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Kiri Te Kanawa</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/edward-teller-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Edward Teller, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/twyla-tharp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Twyla Tharp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wayne-thiebaud/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wayne Thiebaud</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lt-michael-e-thornton-usn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Michael E. Thornton, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20190103164055/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/charles-h-townes-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Charles H. 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