Rosa Parks

1913 – 2005

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an American civil rights activist whose December 1955 refusal to surrender her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama sparked the 381-day Montgomery bus boycott that catapulted Martin Luther King Jr. to national prominence and helped end legalized public-transit segregation. Far from a one-off act, her defiance came after more than a decade of organizing as secretary of the Montgomery NAACP and as an investigator of sexual violence against Black women. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999, and on her death became the first woman ever to lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM