Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks dies aged 92

Rosa Parks, the black woman whose famous refusal to give up her bus seat to a white passenger sparked the US civil rights movement, has died at the age of 92.

Mrs Parks died at her home in Detroit, with friends at her side, her lawyer confirmed.

Mrs Parks, a seamstress who had been a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is credited with bringing about the end of racial segregation in the US.

On December 1, 1955, Mrs Parks, then 42, refused to give up her bus seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in defiance of a law requiring blacks to give up their seats to whites. She was arrested, fined $14 and briefly imprisoned.

However, her arrest prompted a boycott of the bus system, organised by the then little known Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr. The Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted for 381 days, eventually led to the end of racial segregation on public transport.

The ensuing civil rights movement, led by Martin Luther King Jr, went on to result in the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, banning racial discrimination in the US.

Speaking in 1992, Mrs Parks said that she had refused to give up her seat, because she felt she had a right to be treated as any other passenger. “We had endured that kind of treatment for too long,” she said.

Mrs Parks was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 and the Congressional Gold Medal – the country’s highest civilian honour – three years later.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he was “greatly saddened” to hear of Rosa Parks’ death. He said: "Her life was a remarkable one. Rosa Parks showed how the peaceful actions of an ordinary seamstress could change for the better the lives of millions.

"As we approach the fiftieth anniversary of her bravery, she will remain an inspirational figure of great hope for many who continue to fight injustice around the world today."

(KMcA/SP)