Rosa Parks Awarded

U.S. News

Rosa Parks, the civil rights activist from Tuskegee, Alabama, is known primarily for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger in a crowded bus. She is remembered as a long-time advocate of civil rights and one who encouraged the civil rights movement. She has been awarded several times for her impact including the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal in 1979, the Eleanor Roosevelt Women of Courage Award in 1984. Parks also received a medal of honor for her contributions to American ethnic diversity as part of the celebration for the Statue of Liberty’s one hundredth birthday. During the time between 1995 and 2000, Rosa Parks received three other honors. She received the first International Freedom Conductor Award from the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. The nation’s highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, was awarded to Parks in July 1999 by President Bill Clinton. Parks also received the Detroit-Windsor International Freedom Festival Freedom Award in 1999.