Rosa Parks’ quiet act of defiance changed the course of American history. On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus, a single moment that became a defining catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement.

Born in 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama, Parks grew up in a time when racial segregation and discrimination were legally enforced across the South. Despite the barriers, she was deeply committed to justice and equality. Before her famous arrest, she worked as a seamstress and was actively involved in civil rights causes as a member of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), where she investigated cases of racial violence and injustice.

Her arrest for violating Montgomery’s segregation laws sparked a 381-day bus boycott led by a then-young minister, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The boycott crippled the city’s public transit system and ultimately led the U.S. Supreme Court to declare bus segregation unconstitutional in 1956.

Rosa Parks’ strength wasn’t rooted in anger or rebellion, but in dignity and conviction. She once said, “I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free… so other people would also be free.” Her resolve inspired generations to take peaceful, principled stands against oppression.

In the years that followed, Parks continued to work for social justice in Detroit, advocating for racial equality, economic fairness, and education reform. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999, the nation’s two highest civilian honors.

Rosa Parks passed away in 2005 at age 92, but her impact endures. Her courage reminds America that true change often begins with one person refusing to accept injustice, a simple “no” that echoed into a revolution.