Rosa Parks

In December 1955, Rosa Parks, a black seamstress from Montgomery, Ala. was arrested when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white male passenger. Community leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., angry over her arrest launched a boycott of Montgomery buses and began the modern civil rights movement. The protest lasted a year, and resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that forced the integration of public transportation. Her act of courage caused her to lose her job, and it was some time before she found new work as her family coped with threats and harassment and eventually moved to Detroit. In 1965, she joined the staff of Michigan Rep. John Conyers and worked with him until her retirement in 1988. Hailed by lawmakers as the mother of civil rights, Parks was honored with the Congressional Gold Medal on June 15, 1999, the highest civilian award given by Congress.