On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. She was not simply a tired seamstress who happened to say no. She had served as secretary of the local NAACP since 1943 and had disobeyed bus segregation rules before. Her arrest sparked a bus boycott, and about 17,000 Black residents stopped riding. The boycott lasted until the buses were desegregated 13 months later. Her quiet courage cost her. She lost her job and received death threats. Still, one woman who refused to move helped move a whole nation. Courage is often quiet, and it is usually prepared long before the moment comes.
