Rosa Parks is a [symbol?] for the civil rights movement?

What's the term used to describe a figure who comes to represent a movement in the common perception of the population?

I don't mean a leader or a spokesperson, I'm meaning more that they're a mascot for the movement.

Solution 1:

icon. from The Free Dictionary (TFD)

a person or thing regarded as a symbol of a belief, nation, community, or cultural movement

The word icon originally had a deep religious significance, being (TFD)

A representation or picture of a sacred or sanctified Christian personage, traditionally used and venerated in the Eastern Church.

Rosa Parks has an almost religious significance for the Civil Rights Movement and for many of her admirers.

The words icon or iconic are used much more broadly, for example a fashion magazine might describe a simple little black dress (wildly overpriced) iconic. And Icon in Computerese means "a pictorial representation of a facility available on a computer system" (TFD), but none of these meanings should detract from the more profound meaning that Rosa Parks exemplifies.

Solution 2:

Embodiment

Rosa Parks not only launched this new paradigm but incorporated all those that preceded it: Old Leftism, New Deal liberalism, unionism, NAACP legalism and gradualism. She was an embodiment of the civil rights movement to that moment, even if the impression persists that she was a simple old lady with aching feet.

Rosa Parks: The story behind her sitting down - By Diane McWhorter - Slate Magazine, 2005. Emphasis mine.

Embodiment means:

Someone or something that is a perfect representative or example of a quality, idea, etc.

Merriam-Webster