Nightly News | February 27, 2013
>>> we end tonight where we started the broadcast, the civil rights struggle in this country. rosa parks became a huge figure in her own modest way when she took her seat on a montgomery, alabama bus in 1955 . she couldn't know then that over a half century later her statue would be unveiled in the u.s. capitol . nbc's kelly o'donnell was there.
>> ladies and gentlemen , the statue of rosa parks .
>> reporter: history lived and history made.
>> rosa parks ' singular act of disobedience launched a movement.
>> reporter: until today, until rosa parks , no african- american woman has ever been honored in this way. a statue among the nation's war heroes and presidents.
>> ms. parks, alone in that seat, clutching her purse, staring out a window. waiting to be arrested.
>> reporter: montgomery, alabama, 1955 . on a segregated bus, parks took a stand, determined that she would remain seated, refusing the driver's order to make way for a white customer. her cause helped change the course of a long civil rights struggle. a legacy richly documented and carried on by a friend who was there.
>> i loved her. because she gave me a way out.
>> reporter: congressman john lewis says parks, who died in 2005 , had not sought attention, but came to accept that she was a symbol that inspired.
>> without rosa parks , there wouldn't have been martin luther king jr . and maybe without rosa parks and martin luther king jr ., there wouldn't be barack obama .
>> reporter: hundreds of photos.
>> she seemed to me a very -- not shy, but modest. a very modest woman. and i wanted that -- that to come through. her modesty.
>> reporter: he worked from clay to fashion a likeness that was ultimately cast in bronze.
>> we wanted to come up with something that was unique and was somehow even more symbolic than the seat itself, which was the fact of her determination.
>> reporter: now rosa parks courage holds a permanent place of honor. kelly o'donnell, nbc news, the capitol.