Rosa Parks

Published on September 07, 2013 by PBS

Celebrate the life and legacy of Rosa Parks with this special collection from PBS. While Parks may not be the first African American to challenge the status quo of segregation laws in the south, her quiet yet courageous act of protest in 1955 earned her the nickname "Mother of the Freedom Movement." Be inspired by the legacy of Rosa Parks.

What do you really know about the life and legacy of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks?

Gwen Ifill talks with biographer Jeanne Theoharis, whose book "The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks" offers a complex portrait of the woman best known for refusing to give up her seat on an Alabama bus in 1955.


The Rosa Parks Papers

Rosa Parks' letters, papers, photographs, and library all remain inaccessible to the public, so historians and scholars are unable to tell her story in full. What might they reveal about this civil rights trailblazer? From Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.


PBS Learning Media Resources for Teachers

You can find resources, lesson plans, and video clips to help your students learn about Rosa Parks.

Related Video

Is the Rosa Parks Story True?

We all know Rosa Parks as the tired old lady on a bus who unknowingly sparked a civil rights firestorm by refusing to give up her seat in Montgomery, Alabama. But is that true? Not entirely. Rosa Parks was a radical, civil right activist who spent years fighting for justice and she knew exactly what she was doing. In fact, she wasn’t even the first black woman to refuse to give up her seat.

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