It wasn't that long ago that African-Americans had to sit at the back of the bus, and leave the front seats to white people. But it all changed on December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, when Parks, age 42, refused to obey a bus driver's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. Her act of defiance soon became an important symbol of the modern Civil Rights Movement. She became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation. She also collaborated with Martin Luther King Jr. Throughout her life, she received many honors, before dying in 2005.