Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal, on June 15, 1999. (achievement.org)

Rosa Parks was a brave woman who stood up for what believed in and that’s why she is my hero. She has been called “The Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Right Movement.”

Rosa Parks riding a Montgomery, Ala., bus in December 1956, after the Supreme Court outlawed segregation on buses. (Montgomery Advertiser, via Associated Press)

Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on February 4, 1913. Rosa Parks' parents were James McCauley and Leona McCauley. Leona was a schoolteacher and James was a carpenter. At the age of fifteen, Rosa graduated from an African American school, Booker T. Washington High School.

Rosa Parks

In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks stood up for what she believed in. When she was on the bus, Rosa refused to give up her seat for a white person. Rosa Parks was arrested and she decided not pay her court fine of fourteen dollars. Rosa Park’s case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. This court ruled that Montgomery’s segregated seating was unconstitutional.

Rosa Parks when she was 90

Rosa Parks is my hero because she stood up for what she believed in, no matter what the consequences were. She will always be remembered for her role with the civil rights movement.