Includes bibliographical references (page 138) and index.

"At the end of her work day on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks took a seat on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. This began a journey that would change America, when a weary Parks chose to defy the system of racial segregation by refusing to give up her seat, as required by law, to a white passenger. Her refusal to move to the back of the bus resulted in her arrest--and ignited a citywide bus boycott by black riders, that in turn sparked the civil rights movement and brought an end to legal segregation in the South"--Page 4 of cover.