Rosa Parks died yesterday. She was 92.Known as the "mother of the American Civil Rights Movement," her refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus, now almost fifty years ago on December 1, 1955, sparked the uprising that changed the social, moral and economic landscape of the nation.
Public transit, accommodations and restaurants were thoroughly segregated across the South, as well as in other parts of the nation, when Parks defied custom and Jim Crow law by simply not giving up her seat on the bus. [It might be good for us to remember this terrible reality the next time someone begins to call us back to "the good old days" of the 1950s!]
Misquoted on a number of occasions, Parks had reportedly said at one time that she was "too tired" after a long day at work to relinquish the seat, but she was quick to correct this misinformation by saying, "I wasn't tired, I was just tired of giving in."
She simply acted on what thousands of African Americans believed: citizens deserve better treatment and more respect as human beings no matter what the law might dictate.
Her act of defiance led to her arrest and conviction for violating segregation laws. She was fined $10.
Parks had long resented and resisted the racism of the Montgomery statute. Ironically, James Blake, the same bus driver behind the wheel on the day she refused to give up her seat, had put her off his bus years ealier in 1943 for refusing to give up her seat.
In response to this legal action, the African American citizens of Montgomery organized a 13-month bus boycott. During the boycott, 40,000 black citizens walked, car pooled or took black-owned taxi cabs wherever they traveled.
During the boycott, they successfully challenged Alabama law before the U. S. Supreme Court.
Parks provided the challenge that her young, new pastor, Martin Luther King, Jr. (age 26) needed. From the pulpit and the pews of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, King served as the spokesperson for the moral and spiritual crusade that changed the nation. His leadership of the Montgomery Improvement Association demonstrated the power people of faith can exert in the face of oppression and injustice.
Parks' courageous act of civil disobedience signaled the beginning of the end of legal segregation, though the struggle she set off continued for more than a decade. Thanks to her courage, and to the courage of thousands of her friends and neighbors, the ugly reality of racism was displayed for the entire nation to see and to face.
During the boycott, many were harassed and arrested on trumped up charges. Homes, including Dr. King's, and churches were bombed. Following the ruling by the U. S. Supreme Court that outlawed segregation on the city's buses, the violence escalated. Snipers fired at buses and at King's home. Black residents were beaten and the church bombings continued.
The daughter of Tuskegee, Alabama farmers--her father also a carpenter and her mother a teacher--Parks remained uncomfortable with all the attention her action created.
This morning's Dallas Morning News quotes a woman who visited with Parks during a 1988 voter registration rally in Brooklyn, "When you sat down, our people stood up" (page 2A, Tuesday, October 25, 2005).
Rosa Parks lived and died as a person of deep, active, relevant faith.
Thank God she did.
8 comments:
Thanks Larry. It is interesting to see how important brave, selfless leaders are to unpopular causes. She risked more than just a $10 fine when she refused to bow down to that immoral law. I look forward to the day when a brave leader emerges in our country's next great challenge to an unjust law: the fight for full marriage rights for gays and lesbians. I think it's about time.
I couldn't agree with you more, Matt. Thanks for your post.
Yes, thank God that Rosa lived her life, and that its effects still ripple throughout our country.
However. . . and I don't know how to say this . . . but what are the effects of raising up the names of fallen leaders like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.? They deserve to be credited for their work, but do you think that some people -- i.e. white people -- lift them up in honor as a way of making it seem like their work has been completed? As if racial desegregation has occured perfectly, and justice has been achieved, because we now have an MLK Day?
I don't ask this question in order to detract from these leaders' accomplishments. I cannot imagine what our life would be like without them, and I think it is right and honorable that we remember the life and work of Rosa Parks.
But in reading about their lives in various forums, I cannot help but wonder - do people realize that much of their ambitious work has not been completed? That we are still struggling on the path towards equality, and that these leaders would still be working hard if they were among us today? That they would still be "tired," that their passion for justice would still burn on?
Again, I am awed by the accomplishments of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. And I think they deserve to be honored, far more than others who receive higher praise. But, when I see the way that their names are often lifted up in remembrance, part of me wonders - would they want it this way?
That's not exactly what I meant... but I apologize if it came across that way. Hence my comments throughout that it was not about that.
MY question was really: why is it that people who were lambasted only a generation or two ago are now lifted up by the same people? is it truly that society has changed, or that we have somehow lost the understanding of what they stood for?
. . . or were you responding to matt's comment?
If so, I don't really understand how that is "cheap slander against a brave woman." He seemed to be stating the importance of her work for the cause of racial justice, and the need for such a leader among the ranks of people fighting for sexuality justice.
Are you saying that gays are "selfish people"? How so?
As the incomplete story of Rosa Parks was told and re-told yesterday, the leaders of our grassroots organization took time last night at dinner to pray and reflect. Rosa didn't just spark a movement for social change. Her refusal to give up a seat was an organized action. It was planned many weeks ahead of time. In fact, other people had been arrested before her on that bus. The people of Montgomery worked with the Highlander Folk school and learned that by organizing together they achieved a sense of their own spiritual and political power. Homeless people in our town are still struggling for the right to public accomodations. They are refused servive in restaurants, arrested for loitering in city parks and removed from hospital emergency rooms by police. We look to the model of Rosa Parks and Dr. King to guide us in our organizing efforts today.
Jeremy, your point is well taken. The struggle is not over by any means.
Last evening I spoke to the executive leadership of a major Dallas corporation.
At the conclusion of my talk I mentioned the life and death of Rosa Parks. The crowd was racially diverse.
It was interesting to watch the reactions of people as I spoke of Parks. It was as if I had raised a subject that everyone had somehow agreed not to discuss in such a setting.
I sensed that many people, both black and white, appreciated my comments. I even saw some "thumbs up" body language among the African Americans present.
But there was also a sort of embarassed, "why did you bring that up" reaction as well.
If I had the speech to do over, I would change nothing. The subject needs to be discussed. That tells me the work of Rosa Parks is not completed. But then, the work of truth is never finished, is it?
c hand, you're obnoxious.
And by the way, it is spelled "hypocrite." If you're going to feign some sort of intellectual stance, at least spell your words correctly.
Hence the phrase: Not all conservatives are stupid, but most stupid people are conservative.
- chris
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