Rosa Parks was an African American seamstress who refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. Her act of defiance led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the formation of the Montgomery Improvement Association. The 381-day boycott eventually led to the Supreme Court declaring segregation on public buses illegal. Rosa Parks became an icon of the Civil Rights Movement and resistance to racial segregation. She worked as an activist with the NAACP to fight for equal rights and a society without racial barriers.