This year marks the 57th anniversary of Rosa Parks’ decision to sit down for her rights on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, and put the effort to end segregation on a fast track.

Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955, after she refused to give up her seat on a crowded bus to a white passenger.

Contrary to some reports, Parks wasn’t physically tired and was able to leave her seat. She refused, on principle, to surrender her seat because of her race, which was the law in Montgomery at the time.