My name is Rosa Louise McCauley. I was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on February 4th, 1913. I am the daughter of James and Leona McCauley.  

I moved to Montgomery, Alabama, at age 11. I attended a high school that was located in a laboratory school at the Alabama State Teacher's College for colored people. However, at 16 years old I had to drop out to take care of my grandmother who was dying, and my mother who was chronically ill.

In 1932 I married Raymond Parks. He was a self-educated man, who worked for 10 years as a barber and was a long-time member of the National Association for the Advancement of colored people (NAACP). He supported me when I decided to go back to school to get my high school diploma. 

Raymond and I became respected members of Montgomery's large African American community. I joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP and became the chapter's secretary. I worked alongside Edgar Daniel Nixon, who was a railroad porter.

Our community was segregated by the Jim Crow laws that were formed in 1865. Some of the laws included only being able to drink from colored water fountains, borrowing books only from the colored library, and only being able to sit in the colored section seats on the Montgomery buses.

On, December 1, 1955, I was taking the Montgomery bus home. At one point, a white man had nowhere to sit because the seats that were for white citizens were taken. The bus driver told me and three others to stand, that way he could sit down. I refused because I was tired of giving in to the laws. Then two police officers approached me, and I was arrested.

On December 5, I was found guilty of violating the segregation laws. I was given a suspended sentence and fined $10 plus $4 in court costs. 

On the same day as of my trial, Edgar Daniel Nixon led the colored people to boycott the Montgomery buses. More people participated than they had anticipated. They ended up forming the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) to help manage the boycott. They elected Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. as the MIA's president.