On 1 December 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, a quiet and dignified 42-year-old black seamstress refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. Her arrest led to a 381-day boycott of the city's bus system, led by Martin Luther King, which is now considered the beginning of the American civil rights movement. Rosa Parks' personality and character were an important part of the bus boycott's success. Graceful, reserved and a devout churchgoer, she was also a civil rights activist alongside her daytime job as a seamstress, and she believed in the use of righteous force when necessary. In 1957 she and her husband moved north to Detroit, where she continued to work for civil rights, taking part in most of the great marches of the 1960s. She was a great admirer of Martin Luther King, and he of her, and his assassination in 1968 was a bitter blow. After King's death, the movement began to lose its way and Rosa Parks believed that anger and violence were replacing non-violent social protest. This book about the life and times of a remarkable and inspiring woman is also a brilliant re-creation of mid-century American life.