Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 - October 24, 2005) was an African-American civil rights activist. On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to obey bus driver James Blake's order to give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger. Her act of defiance and the Montgomery Bus Boycott became important symbols of the modern Civil Rights Movement. She became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation. She organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders, including Edgar Nixon, president of the local chapter of the NAACP; and Martin Luther King, Jr. Although widely honored in later years, she suffered for her act; fired from her job as a seamstress in a local department store, and received death threats for years afterwards. From 1965-88 she served as secretary and receptionist to John Conyers, an African-American Representative for Michigan's 13th congressional district. After retirement, she wrote her autobiography, and lived a private life in Detroit. She died in 2005 at the age of 92.