Our Auntie Rosa-Her Family Remembers Rosa McCauley Parks

updated July 31, 2025

Our Auntie Rosa: The Family of Rosa Parks Remembers Her Life and Lessons

by Sheila McCauley Keys with Eddie B. Allen, Jr.

Published January 2015, Our Auntie Rosa offers a personal, intimate, revealing glimpse of a woman who made history for “standing up” for justice and equality by sitting down.

The act of declining to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus, simply because she was Black, on December 1, 1955 is a snippet of her life’s work. Even prior to that day she had been quietly working in the civil rights movement, and never stopped, continuing to speak and exemplify courage, faith, and acceptance for all people until she died in 2005.

In this book, her family- neices and nephews, the children and grandchildren of her only sibling- share the moments she spent with them, as a group and individually, encounters that they remember fondly after many years. Without their willingness to be transparent, the world would not know the true depth of spirit of the woman known as “the mother of the civil rights movement.”

She attended their childhood birthday parties, weddings, baby showers, and graduations. She encouraged their education and vocational pursuits, and counselled their marriages. She was the “show and tell” for a great-nephew’s elementary class.

She travelled all over the world meeting with world leaders, including the Pope. The U.S. Capitol Building’s Statuary Hall holds a statue of her. The Postal Service issued a stamp with her likeness. Grand Rapids Michigan named a park after her.

But to her large, loving family, she was simply

Our Auntie Rosa

When the history of this country is written, when a final accounting is done, it is a small quiet woman whose name will be remembered long after the names of senators and presidents have been forgotten.

then Senator Barack Obama at the dedication of her statue in the US Capitol building. 

Excerpts from the book

Having been raised on a southern diet, one of her favorite dishes, calves brains with scrambled eggs, she became much more health-conscious late in life at an age when many of her peers were so set in their habits that not even a doctors warning might have convinced them to change. We would go to the Cass Corridor food co-op together and share ideas about nutrition.

by Asheber, nephew.

listen to an excerpt

Well into her senior years she has only recently begun practicing yoga. Splendid silver hair gives her away as the oldest student in most of the classes she occasionally attends with family but she doesn’t care. She’s reached a point when she considers herself a student of life.

Eventually, she learns the movements well enough to practice alone in her home. The exercises help clear her mind, the stretches keep her body limber. She takes sanctuary, be it at a studio under the voice of an instructor or in the sunlight of her living room. Inner peace and clarity have always been important to her.  

by Sheila, niece

Bookshop.org

Bookshop.org is an online bookstore that financially supports local, independent bookstores.

We believe bookstores are essential to a healthy culture and they are dedicated to the common good.

Bookshop.org donates a portion of every sale to independent bookstores.

Barbie Inspiring Women Series Rosa Parks Collectible Barbie Doll

(an affiliate link, where any purchase can help fund this blog)

• This Inspiring Women Series Barbie doll is sculpted to Rosa Parks’ likeness and is fully articulated for endless posing possibilities.
• Rosa Parks Barbie doll wears a floral dress under a smart wool coat. Included are glasses, gloves, a pillbox hat and clutch accessories.

Rosa, by Lisbeth Kaiser,a Little People, BIG DREAMS book

Post Photos

I visited the Rosa Parks Circle, a park in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where I snapped these pictures. She lived in Grand Rapids for many years. The park is the site of ice skating in winter and swing dances.

Exploring the HEART of families

I hope you will get and read this charming book by people who expressed their love and admiration for a woman most of us only know from history books. She may remind you of a special relative or friend you could call or write to tell how much they meant to you. Do it soon, they won’t be with you forever.

Do you know a child who would be inspired by Rosa’s life? Consider gifting the kid’s book about her and the Inspiring Women Doll.

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