A misleading claim suggesting that civil rights icon Rosa Parks’ husband, Raymond Parks, owned a car has recently gained traction online. This assertion often appears alongside an image of Parks and her husband posing in front of a white car, intending to cast doubt on her historic bus protest.
Image courtesy of Library of Congress
The rumor resurfaced in early 2024, amplified by prominent figures like American podcaster Joe Budden, who mentioned it on his show in June 2024. Clips of Budden’s remarks quickly spread across social media platforms, including a TikTok video that amassed millions of views and likes.
In the clip, Budden and his co-host Trevor “Queenzflip” Robinson discussed the claim:
BUDDEN: The internet has been in an uproar since finding out that Rosa Parks’ husband had a car.
ROBINSON: Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Rosa Parks is a plant?
This seemingly innocuous rumor has been interpreted by some as an attempt to undermine Parks’ legacy. The implication is that if Rosa Parks’ family had a car, her decision to refuse to give up her bus seat on December 1, 1955, was less about necessity and more about causing trouble. This pivotal act of defiance ignited the Montgomery bus boycott, a significant 13-month protest against racial segregation in public transportation.
One user on Threads even commented, “Rosa Parks’ husband had a car and she took the bus just to be messy,” highlighting how the misinformation is used to discredit her actions.
While the photograph circulating online is indeed authentic and available in the Library of Congress archives, the crucial detail is that the car pictured did not belong to Raymond Parks. In fact, Raymond Parks never owned a car. Records indicate that Rosa Parks herself did not purchase a vehicle until 1968, more than a decade after the Montgomery bus boycott.
The Library of Congress, a repository of extensive documentation related to Rosa Parks, holds records that confirm this. Among these documents are a copy of Parks’ vehicle registration and a sales receipt for a two-door 1965 Ford, dated April 25, 1968, from Detroit, Michigan, where she resided at the time.
According to Jeanne Theoharis, a political science professor at Brooklyn College and author of “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks,” the Parks family did not own a car until 1968. Professor Theoharis also noted that during the bus boycott era, segregationists in Montgomery propagated rumors about Rosa Parks owning a car in an attempt to discredit her and the movement.
When asked specifically if there was any possibility Raymond Parks owned a car during the boycott period, Theoharis firmly stated, “No. Not at all. Do you see how poor they were? Look at her income tax records.” This underscores the economic reality faced by the Parks family during that time.
To further investigate the claim, Snopes requested vehicle registration and title records from both the Alabama Department of Revenue and the Michigan Department of State for Raymond and Rosa Parks. The Michigan Department of State responded that they do not retain records beyond 15 years, making older records unavailable. Efforts to obtain records from Alabama are ongoing, and this report will be updated upon receipt of that information.
The Premeditation of Protest: Beyond the Bus Seat
The rumor about Raymond Parks’ car often sparks debate about the spontaneity versus the planned nature of Rosa Parks’ protest. Some online commenters defend Parks by pointing out that regardless of car ownership, her activism was deliberate and part of a broader strategy for civil rights. One commenter on the TikTok video remarked, “So was I the only one that learned in History class that it was planned?”
Another user on Threads stated, “She was an activist working with a team of lawyers. It was a planned protest to bring the case to the courts.”
The reality is nuanced. Rosa Parks was not merely an случайно tired woman reacting impulsively. She was strategically positioned in the “colored only” section of the bus but near the dividing line with the “white only” section. At the time of her courageous act, Parks was a leader in the youth division of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. She was a seasoned and respected activist with training in civil disobedience.
In her autobiography, “Rosa Parks: My Story,” she articulated her mindset:
I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was 42. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.
However, it’s important to clarify that while Parks was a committed activist, her specific protest on that December day was not pre-planned with the NAACP or other organizations. The NAACP was indeed seeking a “test case” to challenge bus segregation laws, especially after hesitating to fully support Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old mentee of Parks who had refused to give up her seat months earlier.
Parks herself elaborated on her spontaneous decision in her autobiography:
As I sat there, I tried not to think about what might happen. I knew that anything was possible. I could be manhandled or beaten. I could be arrested. People have asked me if it occurred to me then that I could be the test case the NAACP had been looking for. I did not think about that at all. In fact if I had let myself think too deeply about what might happen to me, I might have gotten off the bus.
Reverend Jesse Jackson recounted in a 1988 Vanity Fair interview that Parks cited the horrific lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in August 1955 as a significant immediate motivator for her defiance. This tragic event, occurring just months before her protest, deeply impacted her and fueled her resolve.
In response to Parks’ arrest, the Women’s Political Council, a group of Black women, initiated a one-day citywide bus boycott coinciding with Parks’ trial on December 5, 1955. This boycott, initially planned for a single day, was extended indefinitely at a meeting of Black leaders at Holt Street Baptist Church under the newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association. Jo Ann Robinson, leader of the Women’s Political Council, organized the initial boycott call independently, without prior coordination with Parks.
According to Robinson’s memoir:
I made some notes on the back of an envelope: “The Women’s Political Council will not wait for Mrs. Parks’s consent to call for a boycott of city buses. On Friday, December 2, 1955, the women of Montgomery will call for a boycott to take place on Monday, December 5.
Once the boycott commenced, Rosa Parks played a vital role in sustaining it. She worked as a dispatcher in an extensive carpool system, ensuring that boycotters could navigate Montgomery without relying on segregated buses. This demonstrates her continued commitment to the cause beyond her initial act of protest.
Sources
“Emmett Till’s Death Inspired a Movement.” National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian, 28 Aug. 2018, nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/emmett-tills-death-inspired-movement. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.
Library of Congress. “The Bus Boycott | Explore | Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words | Exhibitions at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress.” The Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/exhibitions/rosa-parks-in-her-own-words/about-this-exhibition/the-bus-boycott/. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.
NAACP. “Rosa Parks | NAACP.” Naacp.org, NAACP, 2022, naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/civil-rights-leaders/rosa-parks.
Parks, Rosa, and Jim Haskins. Rosa Parks: My Story. New York, Dial Books, 1992.
Parks, Rosa. Rosa Parks Papers: Miscellany, -2005; Automobile records and drivers licenses; 1968 to 1988. – 1988, 1968. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, .
Robinson, Jo Ann Gibson. “The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It.” Google Books, The University of Tennessee Press , 1987, www.google.com/books/edition/The_Montgomery_Bus_Boycott_and_the_Women/J7rN-aVXprwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=mrs.%20parks. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.
Rosa and Raymond Parks standing in front of a white automobile, likely in Detroit, Michigan. [Detroit, Mich.?, 5/70] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, .
The Henry Ford. “Rosa Parks: What If I Don’t Move to the Back of the Bus?” The Henry Ford, www.thehenryford.org/explore/stories-of-innovation/what-if/rosa-parks/. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.
Theoharis, Jeanne. “”Beyond the Bus: Rosa Parks’ Lifelong Struggle for Justice” | Articles and Essays | Rosa Parks Papers | Digital Collections | Library of Congress.” The Library of Congress, The Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/collections/rosa-parks-papers/articles-and-essays/beyond-the-bus/. Accessed 4 Dec. 2024.
Theoharis, Jeanne, and Say Burgin. “Perspective | Pitting Rosa Parks against Claudette Colvin Distorts History.” Washington Post, 19 Oct. 2022, www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/10/19/rosa-parks-documentary/.
Updates
Dec. 9, 2024: This report was updated to include the Michigan Department of State’s response to our records request and remove the implication that the car in the photo was the same one purchased by Rosa Parks.
By Grace Deng
