Rosa Parks
1913-2005
The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.
On 1 December 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. The driver called the police, and she was arrested for violating city and state segregation laws. She was released on a 100 dollar bond. On 5 December she pleaded not guilty and was found guilty under state law after a trial that lasted only minutes. The fine was 10 dollars plus 4 dollars in court costs. Her lawyer, Fred Gray, appealed at once.
The same day, Black residents of Montgomery began a bus boycott that lasted 381 days. The case that ended segregated buses was a different one, Browder v. Gayle, brought by other plaintiffs. The US Supreme Court affirmed the ruling against bus segregation on 13 November 1956, and the buses were integrated on 20 December. Parks received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999. When she died on 24 October 2005, at 92, she became only the second private citizen to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda, where about 40,000 people filed past.