1931-1932: [Activist with Raymond Parks]
    On Dec. 18, 1932, Rosa married Raymond Parks, a barber from Montgomery. He was a member of the NAACP, which at the time was collecting money to support the defense of the Scottsboro Boys, a group of black men falsely accused of raping two white women. (see more...)

1931-1932: [Received her High School Diploma]

1943: [Civil Rights Movement, NAACP]
    In December 1943, Parks became active in the Civil Rights Movement, joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, and was elected secretary. She later said, "I was the only woman there, and they needed a secretary, and I was too timid to say no." She continued as secretary until 1957. She worked for the local NAACP leader E.D. Nixon, even though he maintained that "Women don't need to be nowhere but in the kitchen."  When Parks asked "Well, what about me?", he replied "I need a secretary and you are a good one.".

1949: [Montgomery Branch NAACP Advisor to the Youth Council]

1955: [The first time she had ever been in an integrated learning environment]
    Mrs. Parks worked as a housekeeper and seamstress for Clifford and Virginia Durr, a white couple. Politically liberal, the Durrs became her friends. They encouraged—and eventually helped sponsor—Parks in the summer of 1955 to attend the Highlander Folk School, an education center for activism in workers' rights and racial equality in Monteagle, Tennessee. There Parks was mentored by the veteran organizer Septima Clark, Tennessee.. ALSO, in August of that same year, she meets Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ...She is also arrested Dec. 1, 1955.

1956: [Boycoters Dec. 21, 1956 Return to Buses]
    In June 1956, the district court declared racial segregation laws (also known as "Jim Crow laws") unconstitutional. The city of Montgomery appealed the court's decision shortly thereafter, but on November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling.  With the transit company and downtown businesses suffering financial loss and the legal system ruling against them, the city of Montgomery had no choice but to lift its enforcement of segregation on public buses, and the boycott officially ended on December 20, 1956. The combination of legal action, backed by the unrelenting determination of the African-American community, made the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation in history.

1957:
    Rosa Parks moves to Detroit transfers Church membership from St. Paul AME (Montgomery) to St. Mathew AME (Detroit)
    Left Detroit a month later to work at Virginia University in Hampton

1959:
    Returned to Detroit

1961:
    Helped friend open sewing factory on the west-side of Detroit

1963:
    Attends March on Washington Speaks at SCLC annual convention

1964:
    Becomes Deaconess in the AME Church in Detroit

1965:
    Participates in Selma to Montgomery March, 1965
    Rosa Parks begins working for Congressman John Conyers 1st District of Michigan in Detroit

1977:
    Husband Raymond Parks dies
    Only sibling Sylvester Macauley dies

1979: [Spingam Medal]
    In 1979, the NAACP awarded Rosa Parks the Spingarn Medal, their highest honor.
    Rosa Parks mother, Leona Macauley dies

1980: [MLK Jr. Award]
    In 1980, the NAACP awarded Rosa Parks the Martin Luther King Jr. Award.

1983: [Hall of Fame]
    In 1983, Rosa Parks was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.

1987: [Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute]
  In 1987, with longtime friend Elaine Eason Steele, Rosa founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. The organization runs "Pathways to Freedom" bus tours, introducing young people to important civil rights and Underground Railroad sites throughout the country.

1988
    Retires from Congressman Conyers Detroit office

1989:
    First Pathways to Freedom ride
    Bust of Rosa Parks unveiled at the Smithsonian

1990: [Nelson Mandela]
    Rosa Parks was part of the welcoming party for Nelson Mandela, who had been recently imprisoned in South Africa.

1992: [Autobiography published]
  In September of 1992, Rosa Parks was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience award for her years of community service and lifelong commitment to social change through non-violent means and civil rights.

  In 1992, Rosa published Rosa Parks: My Story, an autobiography recounting her life in the segregated South. In 1995, she published Quiet Strength which includes her memoirs and focuses on the role that religious faith played throughout her life.

1994:
    The ROSA PARKS PEACE PRIZE in Stockholm, Sweden

    In August of 1994, Rosa Parks was alone in her apartment when an African American drug addict named Joseph Skipper broke in and attacked her. Skipper did not know, when he first broke in, whose home he was in. Only after getting a good look at her did he realize who she was. He even asked her if he was right. Still, he continued on with his plan to rob her and, on his way out the door, he struck her in the face. He was arrested and sentenced to a prison term of 8 to 15 years for breaking and entering into Rosa’s house and other local homes.

1996: [Medal of Freedom]
    Rosa Parks takes her last complete Pathways to Freedom ride with students.

    On September 9, 1996, President Bill Clinton awarded Parks the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given by the United States' executive branch. The following year, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award given by the U.S. legislative branch. In 1999, TIME magazine named Rosa Parks on its list of "The 20 most influential People of the 20th Century."

1997:  [Rosa Parks Day]
    Public Act no. 28 of 1997 designated the first Monday following February 4th as Rosa Parks Day in the State of Michigan


1998:  [More Honors/ Awards]
    Groundbreaking ceremony at her arrest site in Montgomery, Alabama for The Rosa Parks Museum and Library April 21,
    Opens The Rosa L. Parks Learning Center Sept. 2, 1998
    Takes Pathways to Freedom ride to Nova Scotia and receives an honorary degree from Mt. Saint Vincent University
    Inducted into the International Women’s Forum Hall of Fame
    In 1998, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center presented Rosa Parks with the International Freedom
       Conductor Award.

1999: ["Touched by an Angel" & Other Awards]
    In 1999 Parks filmed a cameo appearance for the television series Touched by an Angel. It was to be her last
       appearance on film; health problems made her increasingly an invalid.. (View partial episode...)

    State of the Union Message January, 1999 bipartisan standing ovation
    Congress passes H.R. Bill 573 on Feb. 4 (Mrs. Parks 250th person to receive The Congressional Gold   Medal of Honor)
    Rosa Parks was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal.
    Rosa Parks was awarded the Detroit-Windsor International Freedom Festival Freedom Award.
    Time Magazine named Rosa Parks as one of the 20 most powerful and influential figures of the century.

2000:
    In 2000, the State of Alabama awarded Rosa Parks the Governor’s Medal of Honor for Extraordinary Courage. She also
         received the Alabama Academy Award the same year.

    Meets with Pope John-Paul II in St. Louis -Reads statement to the Pope asking for racial healing.

    Opening of Rosa Parks Museum and Library at Troy State University Montgomery, Dec. 1, On the site where she
       was arrested Dec. 1. (See image...)

    Audience with the Queen of Swaziland and her 2 children-Sept. 2000

    During her lifetime, Rosa Parks was awarded more than two dozen honorary doctorates from universities worldwide. She
       was also inducted as an honorary member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.

2001:  [CBS Television Movie]
    Filming of “The Rosa Parks Story” CBS Television Movie – April 30 -May 23.

2002:  [CBS Television Movie]
    Showing of: “The Rosa Parks Story” CBS Television Movie February 24

2003:  [Hall of Fame]
    October 29, 2003 International Institute Heritage Hall of Fame Award

2004:  [Birthday Celebration]
    Mrs. Parks 91st Birthday Celebration – Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History

2005:  [CBS Television Movie]
    Mrs. Parks 92nd Birthday Celebration-Calvary Baptist Church 1st Cardinal Dearden Peace Award “Dear Mrs. Parks,”
       composed by “Classical Roots Series” Hannibal Lokumbe, for the DSO

    Rosa Parks made her peaceful transition October 24

  Three days after her death in October of 2005, The House of Representative and the United States Senate approved a
    resolution to allow Rosa Parks‘ body to be viewed in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. Rosa was the first woman, and the second
    black person to ever have the honor of lying in state in the Nations capitol.

  On the first anniversary of her death, President George W. Bush ordered a statue of Parks to be placed in the National
     Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C. When signing this resolution, President Bush stated,
        “By placing her statue in the heart of the nation’s Capitol, we commemorate her work for a more perfect union,
      and we commit ourselves to continue to struggle for justice for every American.”