Rosa Parks

It's definitely a small world. It must have been nearly twenty years ago that my great aunt, whom we called Big Aunt Eva (my mother's sister was named for her), passed away in Atlanta. Her name was Eva Parks. One of my mother's other sisters and my cousin decided to represent the family at the funeral. When they returned, they announced that we were related to Rosa Parks. I believe that Rosa and Eva were married to brothers. My extended family isn't exceptionally large or close knit but that was an interesting connection so the death of this particular civil rights has special meaning.

Nearly 50 years ago, Rosa Parks made a simple decision that sparked a revolution. When a white man demanded she give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus, the then 42-year-old seamstress said no.

At the time, she couldn't have known it would secure her a revered place in American history. But her one small act of defiance galvanized a generation of activists, including a young Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and earned her the title 'mother of the civil rights movement.'

Mrs. Parks died Monday evening at her home of natural causes, with close friends by her side, said Gregory Reed, an attorney who represented her for the past 15 years. She was 92.