CNN | 65 years ago today, Rosa Parks stood up for civil rights by sitting down

(CNN) – It was on this day in 1955 when a simple act of defiance elevated a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, into a pivotal symbol in America’s civil rights movement.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a city bus. Little did the 42-year-old know that her act would help end segregation laws in the South.

She was on her way home from work that evening and took a seat in the front of the black section of a city bus in Montgomery.  —read more—