Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks was an African American civil rights activist who is most famous for her participation in a bus sit-in in 1955. She refused to give up her seat in a coloured section to a white passenger and resisted bus segregation. Because of this event, she became an international icon of civil rights. Rosa is a feminine name of Latin origin, and is literally the Latin word for a rose. Rose is the more common English variant. The name Rosa could also be the shortened form of Rosalind, which is of a different origin. Taken as a short for of Rosalind, Rosa would be of Old German origin, and would mean ‘gentle horse’.