Rosa Parks, the ‘Girl on the bus’ whose courageous act of defiance triggered the Montgomery bus boycott and fired the Civil Rights Movement in 1955, was no grandstanding celebrity. In these snapshots gleaned from the Library of Congress’s Rosa Parks Papers, Parks is normality personified. These snapshots epitomise her everydayness and the singularity she fought for. Feet are cut off, portraits are askew and wrongly lit. The tableau is uncontrived. These are personal pictures of a woman who became the catalyst for change. It’s the lack of convention in these images – the absence of an invasive and controlling white hand – that lets these compelling images tell their own stories.
Rosa Parks at a beauty salon, Miami, Florida, August 14, 1986
At the Grand Canyon, Arizona, 1996
Rosa Parks standing near swimming pool at a home or hotel near the coast May 1970
Rosa Parks and Muhammad Ali at their Brotherhood Crusade tribute, Los Angeles, California, 1994
Rosa Parks with family
Rosa Parks, Trenton, N. J. November 1956
Rosa Parks at ceremonies renaming 12th Street Rosa Parks Boulevard, Detroit, Michigan 1976
Rosa Parks’ friends from California April 6 1967
Rosa Parks at the home of Elizabeth Caffey during the State of Alabama Tea
osa Parks standing near an apple tree with three children
Photograph shows a half-length portrait of Rosa Parks, taken at the House of Beauty salon, Detroit, Michigan.
Patricia Cadwell & Rosa Parks, Detroit, Mich.
Our next door neighbors help us put up leads to antenna for T.V 1968
Rosa and Raymond Parks standing in front of a white automobile, likely in Detroit, Michigan May 1970
Rosa and Raymond Parks standing in a garden, likely in Detroit, Michigan May 1970
Rosa Parks at a party honoring Sallye Davis, Angela Davis’ mother 1970
Rosa Parks sitting near a microphone at an unidentified event, 1970
Rosa Parks, full-length portrait, standing next to a Giuseppe Moricci exhibition poster
Rosa Parks, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing front
![Rosa Parks sitting on a sofa, facing right]](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Rosa-Parks-sitting-on-a-sofa-facing-right.jpg)
Rosa Parks sitting on a sofa, facing right
Rodney Lynn – Rosa L. Parks
Rosa Parks cooking at a McDonald’s restaurant grill
Rosa Parks, half-length portrait facing right
Rosa Parks attending her 68th birthday party, Detroit, Michigan, 1981
Rosa Parks at a home, likely in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1984
Rosa Parks at a beauty salon, possibly Jacksonville, Florida, 1986
Rosa Parks at a beauty salon, possibly Jacksonville, Florida, 1986
Rosa Parks, Eleanor 1988
Rosa Parks, Susan McCauley, Elaine Steele and others at a restaurant, Hampton, Virginia, 1989
Rosa Parks’ friends and family, California, 1990
osa Parks’ friends and family, California, 1990
Physicist Stephen Hawking, Rosa Parks and others at an event 1990
Rosa Parks signing copies of her 1992 autobiography, Rosa Parks, My Story, 1992
Rosa Parks’ extended family seated around table 1995
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