Black History Icons: Rosa Parks.br Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was born on br February 4, 1913, and passed on October 24, 2005.br Here are five facts about br the “mother of the modern br day civil rights movement.”.br 1. She was a civil rights activist br as a member of the NAACP before br her famous bus arrest.br 2. Parks revealed she didn’t refuse to br leave her seat because she was tired, br but because she “was tired of giving in.”.br 3. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton in 1996.br 4. Historians consider her arrest and the br Montgomery bus boycott to be what br sparked the Civil Rights Movement.br 5. She was the first woman to lie in honor at the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol after she passed.