Profile Text
Birth Name: Rosa Louise McCauley
Date of Birth: February 4, 1913
Place of Birth: Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S.
Date of Death: October 24, 2005
Place of Death: Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Ethnicity: African-American, as well as smaller amounts of English and Irish, possibly other
Rosa Parks was an American civil rights activist. She is known for rejecting bus driver James F. Blake’s’s request to relinquish her seat to a white passenger in 1955; she was thus arrested for civil disobedience, for violating Alabama’s segregation laws. Inspiring the Montgomery bus boycott, Rosa participated in the subsequent legal challenge. An Alabama court ruled the following year that bus segregation was unconstitutional. At the time, Rosa was a department store seamstress, and a secretary at the NAACP’s Montgomery chapter. Hailed for her actions, she bcame a worldwide symbol of resistance to racism, and joined in organizing with civil rights leaders Edgar Nixon and Martin Luther King, Jr. She was later a secretary to a U.S. Congressman, was active in the Black Power movement, and supported political prisoners in the U.S. Rosa Parks has been honoured as “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement” by the U.S. Congress. Upon her death in 2005, she was the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.
Rosa was the daughter of Leona Carlie (Edwards), a teacher, and James Henry “Jim” McCauley, a carpenter. All of Rosa’s grandparents were black. One of her maternal great-great-grandfathers was Irish, and a maternal great-grandfather on another line was likely white, as well. A picture of Rosa’s father can be seen here . Rosa is sometimes described as having had some degree of Cherokee Native American, Creek Native American, and/or Scots-Irish/Northern Irish ancestry. It is not clear if any or all of these lineages have been verified/documented.
She was partly raised on her grandparents’ farm, outside Pine Level, Montgmery County, AL. Rosa was married to barber and NAACP staffer Raymond Parks, until his death.
Rosa’s paternal grandfather was named Anderson McCauley. Anderson was born in Alabama or Georgia, and was born into slavery. He is sometimes said to have been the son of Charles Maurice Tallyrand McCauley and Rachel Ghiogee. Charles was born in Chapel Hill, Orange County, North Carolina, and appears to have been white. He was the son of William McCauley, whose father was from Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Northern Ireland; and of Virginia Jane Stewart. Rachel Ghiogee was born in South Carolina, and was said to have Native American ancestry.
Rosa’s paternal grandmother was named Louisa Collins. Louisa was born in Abbeville, Henry County, Alabama.
Rosa’s maternal grandfather was named Sylvester Edwards (the son of Rosa Jones). Sylvester was born in Alabama. Rosa’s great-grandmother Rosa was the daughter of Joseph Jones and Mary Potter. Rosa’s grandfather Sylvester is described in the book Rosa Parks: A Life in American History , 2021, page 6, as having been the son of a white plantation owner, likely named John Edwards, who raped Rosa’s great-grandmother.
Rosa’s maternal grandmother was Rose/Rosena/Rosie Percival (the daughter of James “Jim” Percival/Percevall and Mary Janes Nobles). Rosa’s grandmother Rose was born in Pine Level, Montgomery County, Alabama. James was born in South Carolina. His father was Irish.
Sources: Genealogies of Rosa Parks – http://www.wargs.com http://www.geni.com https://www.wikitree.com https://www.findagrave.com https://marycumminsmarycummins.blogspot.com
Rosa Parks/Rosa McCauley on the 1920 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org
Rosa’s father on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org
Rosa’s mother on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org