Whether it was racists in the 50’s or OutKast, who she felt disrespected her name, Rosa Parks didn’t wince when it was time to put up the good fight.
The 92-year-old Civil Rights icon died on Monday due to natural causes in her Detroit home.
Parks helped birth the modern Civil Rights movement in December of 1955 after she boldly refused to relinquish her bus seat to a White man in Montgomery, AL, as the area was segregated by race.
On December 1, 1955, Parks had finished her day’s work and wearily sat in a seat towards the back of a bus, where Blacks were regulated to assemble at the time. However, the White section in the front of the bus was full and a White man attempted to wretch Parks’ seat from her. Parks, who was an active member of the NAACP, defiantly refused and was subsequently arrested.
Martin Luther King, Jr. demanded a boycott of the bus system that lasted 381 days until the bus company went bankrupt from the lack of financial support from the Black community. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually declared racial segregation on public transportation unconstitutional.
In the aftermath struggle, Rosa and husband Raymond eventually migrated to Detroit after finding it difficult to find work after the boycotts.
In 1999, Parks filed a suit against OutKast claiming defamation and trademark infringement for using her name without consent in the hit song “Rosa Parks.” The suit was settled when OutKast, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and two other companies agreed develop educational programs about Parks’ life and legacy. Under the agreement, which was established earlier this year, OutKast will also appear on a tribute album.
Parks penned a book called “Quiet Strength” in 1994 and actress Angela Bassett played her in a 2002 made-for-television movie.