Remembering Rosa Parks

POLITICS - Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an African American civil rights activist whom the U.S. Congress later called the "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement".

On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to obey bus driver James Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. Parks' action sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Parks's act of defiance became an important symbol of the modern Civil Rights Movement and Parks became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation. She organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders, including boycott leader Martin Luther King, Jr., helping to launch him to national prominence in the civil rights movement.

Rosa was later honoured by numerous medals and statues, wrote an auto-biography and her death in 2005 was a front-page story in the United States' leading newspapers.

ROSA PARKS QUOTES

"The only tired I was, was tired of giving in." - Rosa Parks.

"I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move." - Rosa Parks.

"Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it." - Rosa Parks.

"I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people." - Rosa Parks.