Rosa Parks honored with a statue in Montgomery, Alabama

Dakin Andone
By Dakin Andone, CNN
Updated 11:42 PM EST, Sun December 1, 2019
(CNN) —  

Rosa Parks was honored with a new statue in downtown Montgomery, Alabama, on Sunday, 64 years to the day she was arrested for refusing to move to the back of a city bus.

Sunday marks the second annual Rosa Parks Day in Alabama, after the Legislature approved the honor for the civil rights icon last year.

Events were slated to take place throughout the weekend, including the dedication of a statue Sunday afternoon.

A statue of Rosa Parks, seen here, is unveiled in Montgomery, Alabama, on Sunday, December 1, 2019.
PHOTO: WBMA
A statue of Rosa Parks, seen here, is unveiled in Montgomery, Alabama, on Sunday, December 1, 2019.

“Today, on the second official Rosa Parks Day, we honor a seamstress and a servant, one whose courage ran counter to her physical stature,” said Mayor Steven Reed, the city’s first African American mayor. “She was a consummate contributor to equality and did so with a quiet humility that is an example for all of us.”

“No person ever stood so tall,” Gov. Kay Ivey said, “as did Rosa Parks when she sat down.”

Parks was on her way home from work on December 1, 1955, when she refused to give up her seat on a public bus for a white man. Her subsequent arrest prompted the 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system, organized by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Rosa Parks became one of the major symbols of the civil rights movement after she was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger in 1955. For 381 days, African-Americans boycotted public transportation to protest Parks
Photos: The legacy of Rosa Parks
PHOTO: Underwood Archives/Getty Images
Rosa Parks became one of the major symbols of the civil rights movement after she was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger in 1955. For 381 days, African-Americans boycotted public transportation to protest Parks' arrest and, in turn, segregation laws. The boycott led to a Supreme Court ruling desegregating public transportation in Montgomery. In this photo, Parks rides the bus a day after the Supreme Court ruling in 1956.
Parks
Photos: The legacy of Rosa Parks
PHOTO: Universal History Archive/Getty Images
Parks' booking photo. Her activism and arrest served as a rallying point in the civil rights movement.
Parks works as a seamstress in February 1956, shortly after the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott. She was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4, 1913.
Photos: The legacy of Rosa Parks
PHOTO: Don Cravens/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Parks works as a seamstress in February 1956, shortly after the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott. She was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4, 1913.
Parks rides on a newly integrated bus in 1956. It wasn
Photos: The legacy of Rosa Parks
PHOTO: Don Cravens//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
Parks rides on a newly integrated bus in 1956. It wasn't until the 1964 Civil Rights Act that all public accommodations nationwide were desegregated.
Parks, far right, joins a march through Memphis, Tennessee, on April 8, 1968 -- four days after the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. King organized the Montgomery bus boycott. His widow, Coretta Scott King, is seen at center next to the Rev. Ralph Abernathy.
Photos: The legacy of Rosa Parks
PHOTO: Sam Melhorn/Commercial Appeal/Landov
Parks, far right, joins a march through Memphis, Tennessee, on April 8, 1968 -- four days after the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. King organized the Montgomery bus boycott. His widow, Coretta Scott King, is seen at center next to the Rev. Ralph Abernathy.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson shows solidarity with Parks at the Democratic National Convention in 1988. Jackson had been a candidate in the Democratic primaries that year.
Photos: The legacy of Rosa Parks
PHOTO: Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images
The Rev. Jesse Jackson shows solidarity with Parks at the Democratic National Convention in 1988. Jackson had been a candidate in the Democratic primaries that year.
Hillary Clinton greets Parks at the White House in 1990.
Photos: The legacy of Rosa Parks
PHOTO: Monica Morgan/WireImage/Getty Images
Hillary Clinton greets Parks at the White House in 1990.
Actor Morgan Freeman joins Parks at a film premiere party for "Amistad" in 1997.
Photos: The legacy of Rosa Parks
PHOTO: Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Actor Morgan Freeman joins Parks at a film premiere party for "Amistad" in 1997.
Parks attends a 2001 ceremony at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. The ceremony commemorated the 46th anniversary of her arrest.
Photos: The legacy of Rosa Parks
PHOTO: JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP/Getty Images
Parks attends a 2001 ceremony at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. The ceremony commemorated the 46th anniversary of her arrest.
Free copies of The Montgomery Advertiser get handed out before a memorial service for Parks on October 28, 2005. She had died four days earlier at the age of 92.
Photos: The legacy of Rosa Parks
PHOTO: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Free copies of The Montgomery Advertiser get handed out before a memorial service for Parks on October 28, 2005. She had died four days earlier at the age of 92.
Parks
Photos: The legacy of Rosa Parks
PHOTO: Evan Vucci/Pool/Getty Images/file
Parks' casket lies in honor at the U.S. Capitol in October 2005. She was the first woman and the second African-American to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.

A later ruling by the Supreme Court desegregated public transportation in Montgomery, but it wasn’t until the 1964 Civil Rights Act that all public accommodations were desegregated nationwide.

Parks’ small act of defiance made her a major symbol of the civil rights movement. She went on to work as administrative assistant to the late US Rep. John Conyers, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. In June 1999, she was presented the Congressional Gold Medal.

She died in 2005 at the age of 92.