Rosa Parks

This woman helped trigger the 381-day Montgomery bus boycott, organized by a then little-known Baptist minister, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who later earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.

Everyone is familiar with the story of Rosa Parks. She refused to give up her seat on the bus and was arrested for her defiance. In her own words, she "felt that she had a right to be treated as any other passenger."

Soon after, Parks had trouble finding work in Alabama and eventually moved to Detroit with her husband. There she worked as an aide in the Detroit office of Democratic U.S. Rep. John Conyers from 1965 until retiring in 1988.

The city has a street and a middle school named after her in her honor. Among many accolades, she was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nations highest civilian honor.

Rosa Parks died Monday evening of natural causes. She was 92 years old.