When Rosa Parks refused to get up, an entire race of people began to stand up for their rights as human beings.

Her refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man was a simple act that took extraordinary courage in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955. It was a place where black people had no rights that white people had to respect. It was a time when racial discrimination was so common, many blacks never questioned it.

At least not out loud.

But then came Rosa Louise Parks.

Jim Crow had met his match.

Parks’ arrest for refusing to relinquish her seat infused 50,000 black people in Montgomery with the will to walk rather than risk daily humiliation on the city’s buses. At that time, Jim Crow laws required separation of the races in restaurants, on buses and in other public places.

The gentle giant, whose quietness belied her toughness, became the catalyst for a movement that broke the back of legalized segregation in the United States, gave rise to the astounding leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and inspired fighters for freedom and justice throughout the world.

The article says it all. Goodbye, Mrs. Parks.