Rosa Parks Rosa Louise Parks was a civil rights leader born in Tuskegee, Alabama. In 1955 she was arrested for violating segregation laws when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. This resulted in a boycott of the bus system by blacks, with Martin Luther King, Jr. leading the movement. In spite of harassment the boycott continued, and in 1956 segregated seating was challenged in a federal law suit. Parks' personal history has been lost in the retelling of the event. Prior to her arrest, Mrs. Parks had a firm and quiet strength to change things that were unjust. She served as secretary of the NAACP and later Advisor to the NAACP Youth Council, and tried to register to vot