Rosa Parks was an African-American activist, who played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement in America against racism and racial segregation. On December 1st, 1955, on her way back from work in Montgomery, Alabama, she refused to vacate her seat on the bus for a white passenger and was arrested for civil disobedience. This resulted in the African-American community boycotting the Montgomery buses for a year and she challenged her arrest with a court case. The historical verdict in 1956 recognized that bus segregation was unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and Parks became an international icon, collaborating with prominent civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Edgar Nixon. The U.S. Congress has since recognized her as “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of freedom movement”, and for her momentous role she has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal and a posthumous statue in the National Statuary Hall.
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