Ages 3 to 8 years. Rosa Parks is recognised as "the mother of the Civil Rights movements" and one of the most courageous women of the twentieth century. This story of only 200 words provides an introduction to Rosa Parks and uses simple, short words with only the bare outline of Parks's life. The focus of the story is the history-making event of 1 December 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the Cleveland Avenue bus.