Obama pays tribute to Rosa Parks

President Obama is paying tribute to the woman who started a revolution on Dec. 1, 1955.

Montgomery, Alabama, bus passenger Rosa Parks.

"Rosa Parks held no elected office," Obama said in a statement on Tuesday. "She was not born into wealth or power. Yet sixty years ago today, Rosa Parks changed America."

Parks' arrest for refusing to give up her seat in a whites-only section inspired a civil rights movement, starting with a bus boycott in Montgomery organized in part by a young pastor named Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Three-hundred and eighty-five days later, the Montgomery buses were desegregated, and the entire foundation of Jim Crow began to crumble," Obama said in his statement.

The nation's first African-American president called Parks a giant who continues to inspire Americans:

"Rosa Parks reminds us that there is always something we can do. It is always within our power to make America better.

"Because Rosa Parks kept her seat, thousands of ordinary commuters walked instead of rode. Because they walked, countless other quiet heroes marched. Because they marched, our union is more perfect.

"Today, we remember their heroism. Most of all, we recommit ourselves to continuing their march."