Rosa Parks was a lady of courage in more ways than one.
She was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Ala. Such a surprise to know that she was born during Black History Month. The United States government approved February as Black History Month in 1976. President Gerald Ford designed the holiday.
Although Parks' family were sharecroppers and she lived in a shack, it was a star carved on her birthplace home that some Alabama Christians believe was a sign like the Star of Bethlehem—that God had a special interest in bringing Rosa Parks into the world.
“The church with its musical rythyms and echoes of Africa, thrilled me when I was young,” Parks said, recalling how, for a long time, Southern whites had not wanted Blacks to become Christians, preferring to pretend that slaves had no souls.
From the Revolutionary War ear onward, African Americans took and read the Bible, organized religious gatherings and rituals that were passionate to their hearts.
They had the native African faith of their ancestors. At an early age, the inquisitive Rosa McCauley began memorizing Bible verses and routinely quoting scriptures. Growing up she hear her family and friends shouting 'Amen' and 'Hallelujah' and this strengthened her faith. She was a devoted member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church founded in 1816 by Bishop Richard Allen, a former slave.
From its inception, the AME Church petitioned legislatures to end slavery. Other congregationalists included Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth.
Rosa Parks was a strong supporter of the NAACP and worked as youth director of her branch. The Youth of the Tri CountyArea led the Rosa Parks Program on December 1, 2024. The ministers' wives and widows of the Muscle Shoals District Missionary Baptist Association organized the program.
Mrs. Betty West, Mrs. Josephine Bonner, Mrs. Sheryl Hamilton and
