Rosa Parks was the woman who, in the American South, was part of an organized bus boycott effort. Blacks were required to sit at the back of the bus, but Rosa refused to move even after the bus driver got all aggro, and eventually threw her off. The black community boycotted the bus system in Montgomery, Alabama for 381 days as a means to leverage equal rights (note: not 'special' rights). Her name became synonymous with black segregation and the struggle to correct it.