1913-2005 Birthplace: Tuskegee, Alabama Civil Right icon Presidential Medal Of Freedom Award Author Rosa Parks was home schooled by her mother until the age of 11. She had to leave secondary school to care for her ailing grandmother. At the encouragement of her husband, she finished her high school classes and achieved her diploma in 1933. She became active in defending The Scottsboro Boys , a group of Black men who had been falsely accused of raping two white women in 1931.