Rosa was a civil rights activist who refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her defiance sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott; its success launched nationwide efforts to end racial segregation of public facilities. As a leader of the civil rights movement, Rosa Parks received many accolades during her lifetime, including the NAACP’s highest award.

 

Although she had become a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks suffered hardship in the months following her arrest in Montgomery and the subsequent boycott. In 1992, Rosa published Rosa Parks: My Story,

an autobiography recounting her life in the segregated South.

 

In 1995, she published Quiet Strength, which includes her memoirs and focuses on the role that religious faith played throughout her life.