Rosa Louise McCauley Parks ( February 4 , 1913 â `` October 24 , 2005 ) was an African-American seamstress and civil rights activist . She was called the `` Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement '' . Rosa Louise McCauley Parks ( February 4 , 1913 â `` October 24 , 2005 ) was an African-American civil rights activist , whom the U.S. Congress called `` the first lady of civil rights '' , and `` the mother of the freedom movement '' .