Rosa Parks died on Monday at the age of 92.
Almost exactly 50 years ago, on December 1, 1955, she refused to give up her seat to a white man and was arrested. She paid a high price for such a small gesture of defiance. She was arrested. She was harassed. She lost her job. Eventually, she and her husband had to leave their home and move to Detroit. But her case was brought to the Supreme Court and in 1956 segregated bus service was ruled unconstitutional.
Sure, she was not the first black person to refuse to give up a seat on a bus. But there was something extraordinarily powerful and dignified in her quiet outrage. Her decision to pay the price to resist to an unjust human law made impossible for many Americans to ignore the indecency of segregation laws.