Heroine Honored

President Clinton signed legislation Tuesday giving 86-year-old civil rights heroine Rosa Parks a Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’ highest recognition. Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., in December 1955 inspired civil rights advocates across the country. Her arrest set off a lengthy bus boycott led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and provoked a Supreme Court challenge to Montgomery’s segregation law. “Her act that December day was, in itself, a simple one, but it required uncommon courage,” Clinton said. “It was a ringing rebuke to those who denied the dignity and restricted the rights of African Americans.”