Dec. 1 is now considered "Rosa Parks Day" shortly after she died last year at age 92 in Detroit. Other states that have passed resolutions or adopted statutes to honor Parks with her own day include Missouri, Tennessee, New York, Illinois, Michigan and Georgia.

http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?

A Historical Figure Who Shall Never Be Forgotten

Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others." - Rosa Parks

We as Americans and civil people are privileged to have had a person as fine as Mrs. Rosa Parks willing to spark a change in our country. Her memories will live on and teach our youth that even today we must still embrace our civil rights as people and as Americans. Today we celebrate the life of one of America's most important women. She will never be forgotten.

Awards and Recognitions

Parks received the Rosa Parks Peace Prize in 1994 in Stockholm, Sweden. On September 9, 1996, President Bill Clinton presented Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given by the U.S. executive branch. In 1998, she became the first recipient of the International Freedom Conductor Award given by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The next year, Parks was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award given by the U.S. legislative branch and also received the Detroit-Windsor International Freedom Festival Award. Parks was a guest of President Bill Clinton during his 1999 State of the Union Address.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks

Rosa Parks won so many awards because she has a special place in every American's heart. Rosa Parks has allowed for each women to show courage and never give up on themselves. Each of us today has the power to make a change in the way women are looked at in our society.

Poems About The Famous Rosa Parks

ROSA PARKS: THE CHILD
Most of us know of Rosa Parks how her strength was never mild; but does anyone recognize what she felt as a child?
She had a brother named Sylvester who was about two years younger. Rosa went to Mount Zion A.M.E. Church where people suspect she got stronger.
At age six, Rosa started school; only five months was the duration. To have grades one through six was definitely a limitation.
White children took a bus to school, the black students had to walk. As the bus passed, the children threw trash and Rosa knew she'd like to give them a talk.
The Ku Klux Klan existed early, during the time Rosa was a youth. Her world revolved around Pine Level, and that's no lie, just the truth. This is how her school life went and how she lived.

http://www.cyberlearning-world.com/nhhs/project/2000/rosa/achild.htm

I AIN'T MOVING: POEM FOR ROSA PARKS
Get on the bus No smile, just a frown I'm tired, I'm hot and I can't sit down Well, I guess I could sit down If I wanted to sit in the back plenty of seats in the front Now I dont understand that!I paid my fare Full fair in fact But I can't sit in the front Only the back"Rome wasnt built in a day," my momma once said"You must follow your heart,""and fight with your head."We're in a battle that we will continue to loseunless someone stands up,or someone don't move! Well it's another day and here comes the busI've made up my mindI'm gonna do this for us!I get on the bus and go straight for the seatsit down; dress spread out real neatlook around, ALL EYES ON ME!"Get up gal!"I heard the white man yell I wanted to tell him to go straight to hell but intead I said (with my voice real soothing"No sir, I'm tired and I ain't moving."Well, I didn't move I kid you notand the more I sat the madder he got still didn't move and the yelling didn't stop and when I did I had help from the cops yeah, they took me to jail but that was just fine I had used my head and followed my mind. Well, 45 years laterit's a brand new day you can sit in the front seat every day. Listen to me children listen to me well to the words I say, not just the story I tell believe in yourself to your beliefs be true.Don't let nobody walk over you. Some battles are winning oneswhile others may be losing,but stand your ground, keep your faithand tell them YOU AIN'T MOVING

http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/pub0008/LPMArticle.asp?ID=994

ME ROSA PARKS: People thought I was so brave, The daughter of a former slave
I really was scared inside for not moving on the bus, My mind and thoughts were in a rush
But not only scared was I mad and annoyed
All these years, listening, obeying, trying to survive That's what I had to do to save my life
But it came to a stop, and now I am glad
For I made an impact on African American lives.

http://www.ga.k12.pa.us/academics/ls/5th/crpoem/01strpoH/mmhstrpo.htm

In each of these poems lies a special meaning. Each of us are equals and should be treated as so. Our nation still has growing up to do because there is still racism occuring in certain areas of the world. Why?? because people are stubborn and cannot get over how they may have been raised. The world is changing everyday and no one has the power to stop it.

Jim Crows Laws

Under the Jim Crows Laws, black and white people were segregated in virtually every aspect of daily life in the South, including public transportation. Bus and train companies had not provided separate vehicles for the different races, but did enforce seating policies that had separate sections for the blacks and for the whites. School bus transportation, however, was unavailable in any form for black schoolchildren in the South. They were forced to walk to and from school everyday. Parks recalled going to elementary school in Pine Level, where the school buses took white students to their school while the black students had to walk to theirs: "I'd see the bus pass every day… But to me, that was a way of life; we had no choice but to accept what was the custom. The bus was among the first ways I realized there was a black world and a white world."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks

At one time people considered a black world and a white world. Soon after there were people who helped change those views. There are no two worlds. There is only one which we all share. We are all equal and each of us should be looked and treated the same.

She Will Always Continue On

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 was the first woman in American history to lie in state at the Capitol, an honor usually reserved for Presidents of the United States.
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio-1

This is amazing because this really shows how many people loved and respected Mrs. Parks. What a phenomanal woman. Her acts took courage and she gave a new name for women.

Montgomery Improvement Association

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 382 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.
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio-1

This act has shown me to always work hard and never give up. If you hold strong beliefs dont throw them away. Always continue trying for what you believe it right just like Mrs. Parks did. We all can help bring good changes to our world.

Biography

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. 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." 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 while 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."
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. "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."
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio-1

Beginning of the Modern Civil Rights Movement

Most historians date the beginning of the modern civil rights movement in the United States on 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 law, but her lonely act of defiance soon began the movement that would end legal segregation in America. This had made her an inspiration to all freedom-loving people everywhere.
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio-1

Refusing to give up her seat on the bus did not begin in a victory for Rosa Parks. But it was the start of a change for the blacks during that time. One person truly can make a difference.

She Fought Until the End

When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man forty years ago on December 1, 1955, she was tired from a long day of work. At least this is how the event has been retold countless numbers of times and recorded in our history books. But, there's a misconception here that does not do justice to the woman whose act of courage began turning the wheels of the civil rights movement. Rosa Parks is a strong woman who was tired from along day of work. Under any circumstances, she would have probably given up her seat willingly. But this time she was the one tired of the treatment her as well as other African Americans received every day of their lives, what with the racism and segregation laws of that time. She was going to make a difference.
http://www.grandtimes.com/rosa.html

Rosa Parks set her mind to make a difference in the way blacks had been treated and so she did.

Rosa Parks"The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement"

Rosa Parks is known as "the mother of the civil rights movement". She walked into history on December 1, 1955 when she refused to give up her seat for a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Parks was arrested for her defiance, and she agreed to challenge the segregation order in court. After this plan had failed, Parks as well as other followers organized the Montgomery bus boycott.
http://www.greatwomen.org/women.php?action=viewone&id=117