An American Icon. Pioneer. Heroine.

The mother of the civil rights movement.

Pretty lofty accolades bestowed on a petite Tuskegee-born seamstress who stared down the practice of segregationist Jim Crow mandates and simply refused to bend to the status quo of separate and unequal any longer.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was jailed and fined $14 for her refusal to give up her seat to a White man on a bus headed to downtown Montgomery, Alabama.

A woman decided to take a stand for what she believed was right. Her measured, dignified act of defiance sparked the chain reaction that would put into motion the most significant social advancements made in the United States for people of color. Now some 40 years later, the question marks abound for a post baby boomer era that's disturbingly more disconnected from those who came before them is: how long do we have to ride around in our own personal minivans of the mind, oblivious before we reach the corner of Sick & Tired to even care? We can't possibly know our destination until we understand why we've been spared the road less traveled now thanks to their sacrifices.

Her legacy stretches well beyond the boundaries of pop music confections with a hit OutKast song as her namesake and punchlines leveled at how much of a role she really played in Barbershop banter. She demonstrated that it was possible to sit down while still standing tall. May her spirit live on.

"Her life should inspire a generation yet unborn to stand up," Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia [source: The Associated Press]