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5 Little-Known Facts for Rosa Parks' 104th Birthday

Rosa Parks helped found the NAACP’s youth chapter in Montgomery and was a staunch supporter of Planned Parenthood

Rosa Parks' commitment to social justice and the fight for equality reaches way beyond the bus. In honor of what would be Rosa Parks' 104th birthday on Sunday, take a look at some lesser-known facts about the civil rights icon's life before she became a public figure.

As NBC News reported, her early political career focused on issues of interracial sexual violence, and she helped raise money for the defense of nine black teenagers falsely accused of raping two white women. She also fought for women’s rights and was sent by the NAACP sent to investigate the attack of Recy Taylor.

Parks helped found the NAACP’s youth chapter in Montgomery and was a staunch supporter of Planned Parenthood, even serving on the Board of Advocates for Planned Parenthood of America in the 1980s.

Parks went on to work as an aide in the Congressional office of U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) from 1964 until she retired in 1988. After her death, Conyers said of Parks: "Rosa was a true giant of the civil rights movement. There are very few people who can say their actions and conduct changed the face of the nation, and Rosa Parks is one of those individuals."

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