[As the United States prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1955 act of civil disobedience by Rosa Parks, it is critical that any false emphases and flawed cultural myths associated with that December day be challenged and corrected. By exploring some of the historical-political, social, and personal influences that encouraged Parks’s refusal to move from her bus seat, it is possible to recognize in her deed the markings of a true prophetic act.]