A key 'rights' figure wins nonviolence prize

Rosa Parks, the black woman who 24 years ago helped launch the civil rights movement by her refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., has been awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize here, Monitor correspondent Robert M. Press reports.

Coretta Scott King, Dr. King's widow, called Mrs. Parks, who is the ninth recipient of the award, "a woman whose courage and commitment have shaken the conscience of America." Last year's recipient was President Carter.