Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, left to right, President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner attend the unveiling of a statue of Rosa Parks at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 27, 2013. Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus in segregated Montgomery, Ala., on Dec. 1, 1955. Parks' act of defiance and the subsequent Montgomery Bus Boycott became important symbols of the modern civil rights movement.

NBC News reports:

President Obama joined congressional leaders Wednesday on Capitol Hill to unveil a statue of Rosa Parks. Sculptor Eugene Daub told NBC News how he felt creating the likeness of one of the most definitive characters in American history.

More than half a century after she refused to give up her seat on an Alabama city bus, Rosa Parks has an immovable place in the U.S. Capitol — the first black woman to be honored with a statue there.

President Barack Obama and congressional leaders from both parties said at an unveiling Wednesday that the depiction was fitting.

“Rosa Parks’ singular act of disobedience launched a movement,” Obama said. “The tired feet of those who walked the dusty roads of Montgomery helped a nation see that to which it had once been blind.”