Rosa Parks is important because she inspired the Birmingham Bus Boycott which lead to integrated buses in one of the most segregated cities in America.Every American should know the story of Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks was a special influence on a large number of people at a critical time and place in American history. Her great claim to fame is that she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in 1955. For this refusal, she was arrested.She was not the first person to be arrested for this crime, but at the time she was working as a volunteer for the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), so she was personally familiar to all of the civil rights leaders in her community. Because of her age, martial status and other demographic factors, they recognized her as the perfect symbol around which the people could rally. She was not chosen to be such a symbol before she committed her act of defiance. Her decision to break this immoral law was a spontaneous one. The boycott which followed was very carefully planned.Rosa Parks lived in Birmingham, Alabama. At the time, this also happened to be the home of Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. lead the boycott that followed the arrest of Rosa Parks. It lasted for over a year. African American citizens refused to ride the buses of Birmingham until they were allowed to sit in the front. The bus companies needed the revenue from the African American community, but they stubbornly refused to give in for over a year!African Americans with cars volunteered to help transport each other around the city until the boycott was lifted by order of the US District Court. It was an enormously important event.Rosa Parks joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1943 and devoted her life to the cause of American civil rights and equality, until her death in 2005 at age 92._______________________________________________________________"If you are being racist to another race, you are only being racist to yourself, your friends and your family, for everybody is an equal"