<p>President Barack Obama Wednesday praised the courage of Rosa Parks at a ceremony in the US Capitol where he dedicated the statue in honour of the civil rights activist.<br /><br /></p>.<p>"(I)n a single moment, with the simplest of gestures, she helped change America - and change the world," he said of Parks, the first African-American to be honoured with a life-size statue in the Capitol.<br /><br />Sojourner Truth, one of the first black women to fight against slavery in the US, has a bust located in the Capitol Visitors Center.<br /><br />On Dec 5, 1955, on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama, the 42-year-old Parks challenged the prevailing segregation laws by refusing to give up her seat to a white man.<br /><br />For that, she was arrested, sent to jail and fined $40.<br /><br />Parks, a seamstress by trade, was an active member of the NAACP and her arrest resulted in a boycott lasting 381 days against the Montgomery bus system organized by Martin Luther King Jr.<br /><br />In 1998, the US Congress authorized Parks to receive the Medal of Honor, the main decoration that the legislative body bestows on civilians.<br /><br />On Dec 1, 2005, President George W. Bush signed a law urging Congress to add a statue of Rosa Parks to the Capitol collection.<br /><br />The greatest honour that can be done to Parks' memory is "to carry forward the power of her principle and a courage born of conviction", Obama said Wednesday.<br />Attending the ceremony at the Capitol were several of Parks' relatives and a number of leaders of Congress.<br /><br />Parks died in 2005 of natural causes.</p>
<p>President Barack Obama Wednesday praised the courage of Rosa Parks at a ceremony in the US Capitol where he dedicated the statue in honour of the civil rights activist.<br /><br /></p>.<p>"(I)n a single moment, with the simplest of gestures, she helped change America - and change the world," he said of Parks, the first African-American to be honoured with a life-size statue in the Capitol.<br /><br />Sojourner Truth, one of the first black women to fight against slavery in the US, has a bust located in the Capitol Visitors Center.<br /><br />On Dec 5, 1955, on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama, the 42-year-old Parks challenged the prevailing segregation laws by refusing to give up her seat to a white man.<br /><br />For that, she was arrested, sent to jail and fined $40.<br /><br />Parks, a seamstress by trade, was an active member of the NAACP and her arrest resulted in a boycott lasting 381 days against the Montgomery bus system organized by Martin Luther King Jr.<br /><br />In 1998, the US Congress authorized Parks to receive the Medal of Honor, the main decoration that the legislative body bestows on civilians.<br /><br />On Dec 1, 2005, President George W. Bush signed a law urging Congress to add a statue of Rosa Parks to the Capitol collection.<br /><br />The greatest honour that can be done to Parks' memory is "to carry forward the power of her principle and a courage born of conviction", Obama said Wednesday.<br />Attending the ceremony at the Capitol were several of Parks' relatives and a number of leaders of Congress.<br /><br />Parks died in 2005 of natural causes.</p>