Rosa Parks (autograph)
American Heritage. Volume XXIII, number 2
(1972).
Rosa Parks (1913-2005) is an icon of the civil rights movement for her refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus in 1955. According to an autographed copy of a 1970 American Heritage Magazine in our collection, the entire structure of legal segregation began to fall when one “weary” woman refused to stand. In fact, Parks was already a committed activist who continued to work in civil rights campaigns throughout her life. Yet her defiance that day was spontaneous and determined. She was arrested for violating segregation laws and filed an appeal immediately following her conviction. The night of the arrest, fellow activist Jo Ann Robinson printed over 35,000 handbills announcing the Montgomery bus boycott, and a new stage in the civil rights struggle was born.
