Tonight civil rights pioneer, Rosa Parks passed away. Mrs. Parks was 42 when she committed an act of defiance in 1955 that was to change the course of American history and earn her the title "Mother of the civiuses, restaurants and public accommodations" throughout the South, while legally sanctioned racial discrimination kept blacks out of many jobs and neighborhoods in the North.

Mrs. Parks died at her home of natural causes, said Karen Morgan, a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. John Conyers (search), D-Mich.