Best known for her role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. Parks refused to give up her seat and move to the back of the bus. She was arrested, lost her job and was the subject of death threats.

But as the movement grew stronger she became an icon of what activism looks like.  After the boycott, Parks moved to Detroit. She went to work for US Rep. John Conyers in the House of Representatives from 1965 to 1988. She died in 2005.