Montgomery

Rosa Parks was arrested, and the black community of Montgomery was shocked and angry.

The buses in Montgomery were segregated.

Montgomery was where it all began.

It all started in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955.

For 381 days, the buses of Montgomery travelled back and forth on their routes, almost empty.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes, we can.

And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America — the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can. At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach out for the ballot. Yes we can. When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can. When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can. She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that we shall overcome. Yes we can. A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.

The Library of Congress marked Black History Month with an exhibition dedicated to Rosa Parks – best known for her refusal to give up her seat to a white man on a crowded bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

On November 19, Country legend Charlie Daniels will host the 11th annual "Christmas For Kids Benefit Concert" at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. Also on the bill are Montgomery Gentry, Chris Young, Rodney Atkins and Taylor Swift. Proceeds go to 300 local school children, who will be escorted to a Wal-Mart store on December 18. Each will receive $150 to spend on anything they want. The children will be chauffeured from their schools to Wal-Mart by a Country star's luxury tour bus.

So when King – who had been in Atlanta for “Bloody Sunday” – telegrammed Parks about returning to Alabama to take part in a third mass march from Selma to Montgomery, her immediate answer was “Why, of course.”