
Rosa Parks became one of the major symbols of the civil rights movement after she was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger in 1955. For 381 days, African-Americans boycotted public transportation to protest Parks' arrest and, in turn, segregation laws. The boycott led to a Supreme Court ruling desegregating public transportation in Montgomery. In this photo, Parks rides the bus a day after the Supreme Court ruling in 1956.

Parks' booking photo. Her activism and arrest served as a rallying point in the civil rights movement.

Parks works as a seamstress in February 1956, shortly after the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott. She was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4, 1913.

Parks rides on a newly integrated bus in 1956. It wasn't until the 1964 Civil Rights Act that all public accommodations nationwide were desegregated.

Parks, far right, joins a march through Memphis, Tennessee, on April 8, 1968 -- four days after the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. King organized the Montgomery bus boycott. His widow, Coretta Scott King, is seen at center next to the Rev. Ralph Abernathy.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson shows solidarity with Parks at the Democratic National Convention in 1988. Jackson had been a candidate in the Democratic primaries that year.

Hillary Clinton greets Parks at the White House in 1990.

Actor Morgan Freeman joins Parks at a film premiere party for "Amistad" in 1997.

Parks attends a 2001 ceremony at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. The ceremony commemorated the 46th anniversary of her arrest.

Free copies of The Montgomery Advertiser get handed out before a memorial service for Parks on October 28, 2005. She had died four days earlier at the age of 92.

Parks' casket lies in honor at the U.S. Capitol in October 2005. She was the first woman and the second African-American to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.