ROsa Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the US Congress called "the first lady of civil rights and the mother of the freedom movement." Her birthday (February 4) and the day she was arrested (December 1) became Rosa Parks Day, celebrated in the US states of California and Ohio.
On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to obey bus driver James Blake when he told her to give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger after the white part has been filled.
In 1900, Montgomery had passed a city ordinance (essentially only whites could vote) to segregate bus passengers by race.
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