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Exhibition Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words

Raymond Parks’s Barber’s License, Montgomery, Alabama, 1957. Printed document. Rosa Parks Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (014.00.00)
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Raymond Parks’s Barber’s License

Raymond Parks did not receive a formal education as there was no nearby black school to attend. He taught himself to read with the help of his mother Geri. An avid reader, he cultivated a thorough knowledge of current events and an appreciation for poetry. He held several jobs before moving to Tuskegee, where he learned barbering. He was working at the Atlas Barber & Beauty Shop in downtown Montgomery and was active in the Scottsboro Boys’ defense when he met Rosa in 1931.