AN ICON

New Statue in Montgomery, Ala., Dedicated to Rosa Parks

The statue’s unveiling takes place on the 64th anniversary of her arrest for refusing to move to the back of a city bus and give up her seat to a white man.

On the second annual Rosa Parks Day in Alabama, the civil rights advocate will be honored in downtown Montgomery on Sunday with a new statue. Events dedicated to Parks, a symbol of the civil rights movement, unfolded throughout the city over the weekend. The unveiling of this new statue takes place on the 64th anniversary of her arrest for refusing to move to the back of a city bus and give up her seat to a white man on Dec. 1, 1955. Her arrest led to a 13-month boycott of the Montgomery bus system, which was organized by Martin Luther King Jr, and ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that desegregated public transportation in Montgomery.