The influential African American woman known for her role in the civil rights movement is Rosa Parks. Parks became an iconic figure when she famously refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. Her arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a pivotal event in the struggle for civil rights that highlighted systemic racial discrimination. Parks' act of defiance and her involvement with organizations like the NAACP positioned her as a symbol of resistance to racial injustice, inspiring activists and movements for social change across the nation.