When the producers of CBS’ “The Rosa Parks Story” started assembling their cast, they wanted only one actress to play the role of the African-American woman who refused to yield her bus seat to a white woman in 1955 Alabama, a watershed event in the civil rights movement, reports People magazine.

“I received a call, asking if I would portray Parks,” remembers Angela Bassett, “and if I did not, they wouldn’t make the movie.”

Bassett’s decision, she says, was easy. “I’m so proud and so grateful to her for the sacrifices that she made. She caused a victory that I and so many other people enjoy.”

In Washington for a screening of the movie (it airs at 8 p.m. on Feb. 24), Bassett said, “There are still many struggles that we need to overcome. … Every day I have to stand up for my own rights as a woman, as an actress, as someone who wants to be respected. But as I stand up for my rights, I stand up for the rights of others.

“We have to serve one another when we have the opportunity.”

Meanwhile, Bassett has joined Jesse Jackson in branding the Oscar voters racially lopsided.