It only takes a spark to light a fire, and when it came to the Civil Rights movement, one major spark toward change took place on December 1, 1955. This was when Rosa Parks, a Black woman in Montgomery, Alabama, bravely refused to relinquish her seat on the bus to another white passenger, breaking the Alabama law that required Black passengers to do so.

Rosa was subsequently arrested, setting off a massive 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system by thousands — and directly leading to a 1956 Supreme Court decision that banned segregation on public transportation, and even more importantly, to the rise of an eloquent and passionate young preacher who joined in those boycotts and the outcry for justice — Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

No wonder Rosa Parks is celebrated multiple times each year – on the anniversary of her birth (February 4) in Missouri, on the first Monday after that February 4 in California and Michigan, as well as by all other states on December 1, the date commemorating her act of courage.

Rosa passed away at the age of ninety-two on October 24, 2005. And on October 30, she became the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.