Civil-rights icon Parks dead at 92

African-American civil rights icon Rosa Parks has died. She was 92.

The activist, who made headlines almost 50 years ago when she refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white man as per Alabama's segregated public transport laws, was a long-time champion against racism.

Born Rosa Louise McCauley in 1913, Parks worked as a seamstress at a Montgomery, Alabama department store, but became a national figure during a trip home one December evening when she engaged in a simple gesture of defiance that galvanised the civil rights movement.

She was honoured in 1992 when former US president Bill Clinton awarded her the Congressional Gold Medal, and more recently hit the headlines when she took funk duo Outkast to court over the unlawful use of her name in a song.

Parks claimed the group and record label BMG were profiting from her name, which was "a registered trademark". Her suit also alleged she was defamed in the song Rosa Parks.

The five-year legal battle ended earlier this year when Parks' family insisted the ageing civil-rights heroine was mentally unfit to fight the case in court.