Today would have been Rosa Parks' 100th birthday.

More than any other civil rights leader – with the exception of Martin Luther King Jr. – Parks is revered by many because of her essential contribution to the cause of equality for all.

A simple act of refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery City bus to a white man in 1955 like the law at the time required at the time set into motion a chain of events that brought King to prominence and turned her into a martyr.

There's some debate whether Parks' refusal was simply because her feet were tired or a pre-mediated act of civil disobedience. What's clear is Parks had a history of civil rights activism long before the day she refused to give up her seat.

It's likely she knew just what she was doing but it still took an enormous act of courage to follow through with the plan during those restrictive times.

Happy 100th birthday to Rosa Parks, who died in October 2005  in Detroit.

Read more about this incredible American hero here.