Born on this day in Tuskegee, Ala. 1913, Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man helped to launch the 1955 Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott and contributed mightily to the civil rights push.

(Thia article was originally published in 2013.  Today, Feb. 4, 2017,  is the 104th anniversary of her birth)

Today is Rosa Park’s 100th birthday.  I had the honor of meeting her and doing an interview with her when I was in college in the 70s.   When she passed away in 2005 my daughter and I jumped in our car and followed her funeral procession—as did hundreds of people in the Detroit area.

Her story is a classic example of how one action by one person can inspire so many others on to great things. Who knows? Perhaps if she had not refused to move to the back of the bus in 1955 Barack Obama would not be the President of the United States in 2013.