Rosa Parks

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a soft-spoken African American seamstress, was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

Check out our book review of Jeanne Theoharis’ The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks--an exceptional work that offers real history beyond the myth of Parks as a tired seamstress.

Hear from a long-time member of The Henry Ford what a recent photograph of President Barack Obama sitting on the Rosa Parks Bus means to her.

Learn how we acquired and restored the bus on which Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat.

In honor of the 60th anniversary of Rosa Parks' courageous act, we take a moment to reflect on her legacy. Read more at The Henry Ford blog.

On February 4, The Henry Ford is celebrating what would have been Rosa Parks’ 100th birthday with a National Day of Courage. Find out what's in store.

In honor of Rosa Parks’ 100th birthday and our Day of Courage celebration earlier this year, the education team at The Henry Ford has developed a special educational activity book for children that focuses on social innovation and the way the civil rights moments.

Learn how the bus on which Rosa Parks sat that day in 1955 was restored — going from a discarded relic in an Alabama field to one of the most popular artifacts in Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation.

Rosa Parks turned a single act of defiance into a defining moment of the modern American civil rights movement.

Learn how Curt Flood took on racism and injustice in Major League Baseball, the toll this work had on him, and how he turned his life around—and met a civil rights icon.