Tributes are pouring in for Rosa Parks, the black woman whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man 50 years ago triggered the modern U.S. civil rights movement.
President Bush on Tuesday said Mrs. Parks' refusal was a show of defiance that inspired millions of people and transformed America for the better.
Former President Bill Clinton said Mrs. Parks was a woman of great courage and dignity, and that he was proud to award her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy said the country has lost a true American hero.
Mrs. Parks died Monday at the age of 92.
In 1955, she was riding a crowded city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, when the driver ordered her to give up her seat to a white passenger. When she refused, Mrs. Parks was arrested.
That incident set off a year-long boycott of the Montgomery city buses by the African-American community. The boycott prompted a chain of events that led to the end of legalized segregation in the United States.
President Bush on Tuesday said Mrs. Parks' refusal was a show of defiance that inspired millions of people and transformed America for the better.
Former President Bill Clinton said Mrs. Parks was a woman of great courage and dignity, and that he was proud to award her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy said the country has lost a true American hero.
Mrs. Parks died Monday at the age of 92.
In 1955, she was riding a crowded city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, when the driver ordered her to give up her seat to a white passenger. When she refused, Mrs. Parks was arrested.
That incident set off a year-long boycott of the Montgomery city buses by the African-American community. The boycott prompted a chain of events that led to the end of legalized segregation in the United States.