The .
boycott lasted for 380 days. The case was taken to the supreme court, and on December 20, .
1956, the Court Justices declared segregation of the Montgomery Alabama busses illegal; .
permanently desegregating them.
In 1957, Parks and her family decided to move to Detroit, Michigan as a result of .
continual harassment from angry whites. Parks was employed as a receptionist, and later staff .
assistant by John Conyers, a black member of the U.S. House of Representatives .
(achievement.com) She served for 25 years while actively continuing her work with the NAACP .
and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She also served as a deaconess at the Saint .
Matthew African Methodist episcopal Church.
Parks was given many awards, including an honorary degree from Shaw College in .
Detroit, the 1979 NAACP Spingarn Medal, and an annual Freedom Award presented in her .
honor by the SCLC. She was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize .
in 1980, and in 1984, she was given the Eleanor Roosevelt Women of Courage Award. She .
founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development in 1988, to train African .
American youth for roles in leadership, and became the institute's president. In 1989 her .
achievements were honored at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in .
Washington, D.C. Parks was widely requested as a public speaker and traveled to share her .
experiences and roles in the civil rights movement. .
In September 1994, Parks was beaten and robbed in her home in Detroit. She recovered .
from this and remained involved in African American issues. She gave a speech at the Million .
Man March in Washington D.C. in October 1995. .
In 1998, Parks was given the International Freedom Conductor Award by the National .
Underground Railroad Freedom Center. In July 1999, former president Bill Clinton awarded .
Parks the Congressional Gold Medal. .
Rosa Parks overcame all odds against her, contributing to a desegregated America, and .
