Rosa Parks Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

Rosa Parks (1913-2005), a tired seamstress from Montgomery, Alabama, refused to relinquish her seat on a city bus to a white man, resulting in her arrest -- and a successful bus boycott led by a then virtually unknown minister named Martin Luther King, Jr. A 1956 Supreme Court ruling struck down the Montgomery ordinance under which she had been charged and outlawed racial segregation on public transportation. She remained active in the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and, in 1987, co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, which provides scholarships and guidance for young Blacks. On June 15, 1999, in a Capitol Hill ceremony, Mrs. Parks, already the recipient of a number of awards, was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor Congress can bestow upon an individual.