Rosa Parks, R.I.P.

Rosa Parks passed away this evening. She was 92. When Rosa Parks refused to get up, an entire race of people began to stand up for their rights as human beings... This mild-mannered black woman refused to give up her seat on a city bus so a white man could sit down. Jim Crow laws had met their match. Parks' arrest triggered a 381-day boycott of the Montgomery, AL bus system, organized by a then little-known baptist minister, the Rev. Martin Luther King Junior, who later earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.

Parks has been honored as one of the 20 most influential heroes and icons of the 20th century.

Parks' biography at the Academy of Achievement site, with video and audio from 1995 interviews. (H/T: Michelle Malkin)

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