Rosa Parks

The late Rev. Farrell Duncombe (left) spoke with his friend Howard Robinson for a StoryCorps conversation in 2010 about how his role models helped shape him as a leader in his Alabama community.

National

How Role Models Like Rosa Parks Shaped A Distracted Kid Into A Leader

5:02am June 11, 2021

by Jey Born

At StoryCorps, the Rev. Farrell Duncombe remembered those who nurtured him — like Rosa Parks, his former Sunday school teacher, who joked once that as a kid, "I ain't think you was gonna be nothing."

In this May 28, 1957, photo, Rev. Robert S. Graetz, center, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, left, talk outside the witness room during a bombing trial in Montgomery, Ala. Graetz, the only white minister to support the Montgome

Robert Graetz, Only White Pastor To Back Montgomery Bus Boycott, Dies At 92

4:24pm September 22, 2020

by Tom Gjelten

Robert and his wife Jeannie Graetz faced bombs and KKK death threats for their role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, but their Black friends and neighbors protected them.

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Georgia Rep. John Lewis near the statue of Martin Luther King Jr. in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., earlier this year. At StoryCorps in 2018, Lewis talked about meeting King in Montgomery, Ala., at 18.

National

Rep. John Lewis' Fight For Civil Rights Began With A Letter To Martin Luther King Jr.

12:05pm January 17, 2020

As a teenager growing up in Alabama, Lewis wrote a letter to Martin Luther King Jr. during a budding civil rights movement. In a letter back, King invited the 18-year-old to join the cause.

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'Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words' Reveals The Real Person Behind The Icon

4:40pm December 05, 2019

The Alabama woman's civil rights activism did not begin or end with her famous refusal to move to the back of a bus in segregated Montgomery, a new exhibit of her writings, documents and photos shows.

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Georgia Gilmore adjusts her hat for photographers in 1956 during the bus boycott trial of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Montgomery, Ala. She testified: "When you pay your fare and they count the money, they don't know the Negro money from white money."

Meet The Fearless Cook Who Secretly Fed — And Funded — The Civil Rights Movement

8:16am January 15, 2018

by Maria Godoy

Georgia Gilmore organized black women to cook without raising the suspicions of their white employers, and poured the proceeds into an alternative transportation system for Montgomery bus boycotters.

In a speech at the Golden Globes, Oprah Winfrey told the story of Recy Taylor's violent rape by six white men in 1944. Taylor, pictured above, died last month at age 97. Her attackers were never prosecuted.

'Recy Taylor's Rape Still Haunts Us'

5:43pm January 14, 2018

by Michel Martin

At the Golden Globes, Oprah Winfrey told the story of Recy Taylor's rape in 1944. Taylor died last month at 97. NPR's Michel Martin reflects on their 2011 interview and why her story still haunts us.

President Trump holds a jersey given to him by New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick (left) alongside members of the team during a ceremony Wednesday at the White House honoring the 2017 Super Bowl champions.

This Week In Race: Guess Who's Not Coming To The White House

2:24pm April 21, 2017

by Karen Grigsby Bates

Karma, man.

Montgomery police cadets gathered outside the Rosa Parks Museum before a tour. The tour is part of a course called "Policing in a Historic City: Civil rights and Wrongs in Montgomery."

National

In Montgomery, Rosa Parks' Story Offers A History Lesson For Police

6:49am November 30, 2015

by Debbie Elliott

Sixty years ago Tuesday, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus. Recruits in Montgomery, Ala., are learning about Parks in a course aimed at eliminating bias in policing.

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No Meekness Here: Meet Rosa Parks, 'Lifelong Freedom Fighter'

2:13am November 30, 2015

by NPR Staff

As the 60th anniversary of the historic Montgomery Bus Boycott approaches, author Jeanne Theoharis says it's time to let go of the image of Rosa Parks as an unassuming accidental activist.

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60 Years Later, What Can Activists Learn From The Montgomery Bus Boycott?

3:54pm November 27, 2015

by Michel Martin

Decades after Rosa Parks changed history, a new generation faces the challenge of remaking the civil rights movement for the next century. What can they learn from the past to build for the future?