President Obama and congressional leaders unveil a statue to
honor civil rights leader Rosa Parks in the rotunda of the U.S.
Capitol. By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News Feb 27,2013 More
than half a century after she refused to give up her seat on an
Alabama city bus, Rosa Parks has an immovable place in the U.S.
Capitol — the first black woman to be honored with a statue
there. President Barack Obama and congressional leaders from
both parties said at an unveiling Wednesday that the depiction
was fitting: Parks is shown seated, hands clasped in front of
her, eyes fixed forward. “Rosa Parks’ singular act of
disobedience launched a movement,” Obama said. “The tired feet
of those who walked the dusty roads of Montgomery helped a
nation see that to which it had once been blind.” On Dec. 1,
1955, Parks, then a 42-year-old seamstress, broke the law by
refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a packed
bus. Her arrest touched off a yearlong boycott of the bus
system, a turning point in the civil right