made a silent statement that would forever change her life. This decision sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, not because it was the first time that a black American was arrested for refusing to give up his seat, but because Rosa was already well-known as a black activist and this could be used by the NAACP to address segregation. After her arrest and involvement in the boycott Rosa lost her job at the department store. Two years later in 1957, she and her husband moved to Detroit. There she worked as a seamstress for eight years before she became Congressman John Conyers administrative assistant. She stayed active in the Civil Rights Movement and joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She also participated in several marches and rallies, and in the mid 80s she made a countless number of public appearances and gave history lessons about the Civil Rights Movement. In 1987 she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, which is committed to career training for young black Americans. It was a dream of hers to one day create an institute to help reduce the dropout rate of black youth. An excellent feature of this Institute is the annual summer program, Pathway to Freedom, for teenagers. The teenagers in the program trace the path of the Underground Railroad, learning the history of the United States and of the Civil Rights Movement. For all of her courage and achievements, Rosa has received many awards and honorary doctorates, among the most notable the Spingarn Medal given by the NAACP, and the Martin Luther King Jr., Nonviolent Peace Prize. In more recent years Parks has done anything but give up on the fight for equality. Instead she has become a role model for young Americans. She has written an autobiography entitled Quiet Strength, and spends most of her days reading and responding to mail she receives from students, politicians, and just regular people. Mcclain 3Early Influe...
