DETROIT (AP) - Rosa Lee Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern civil rights movement, died Monday. She was 92.Mrs. Parks died at her home of natural causes, said Karen Morgan, a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.
Mrs. Parks was 42 when she committed an act of defiance in 1955 that was to change the course of American history and earn her the title ``mother of the civil rights movement.''
At that time, Jim Crow laws in place since the post-Civil War Reconstruction required separation of the races in buses, restaurants and public accommodations throughout the South, while legally sanctioned racial discrimination kept blacks out of many jobs and neighborhoods in the North.
The Montgomery, Ala., seamstress, an active member of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was riding on a city bus Dec. 1, 1955, when a white man demanded her seat.
Mrs. Parks refused, despite rules requiring blacks to yield their seats to whites. Two black Montgomery women had been arrested earlier that year on the same charge, but Mrs. Parks was jailed. She also was fined $14.
Wow.
ReplyDeleteI remember a history prof of mine, big southern historian, attempting to prompt a discussion of the origins of ML King-led marches and the Civil Rights movement. Our eyes were glazed over, an indication of our jaded view of the media-induced 'fictionization' of events leading to the marches. (some of which have been repeated in recent history, attempting to cast Rosa as a maverick, acting alone.... but such is hollywood...)
We learned about the SCLC, and how Rosa Parks refusing to relinquish her seat was actually a setup (no disrespect intended -- I'd better not be wrong about this, or I'm f*cked..), designed for the Montgomery Bus system to actually implement a fucked-up law one more time by arresting her, which would prompt pre-orchestrated mass demonstrations. If I'm not mistaken, the Montgomery police were onto the SCLC, and they tried to parole Rosa as quickly as possible, to avoid the tempest that was a-brewin'............
It's been a while, and my fax are pretty rusty, but I like the strategic genius of it all. Kind of like Michael Moore in his move-on.org iteration......
I remember doing a book report on a book about her in grade school. (maybe 2nd grade) I think it was the first realization that we were living in the results of those movements and that things were not always I knew them to be.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of HOW or WHY she was there, the important thing is that it forced people to see how wrong the discrimination was (and still is) and that changes needed to be made in how we treated our fellow man.
I'm going with Muddy on this one. The origins of the famous Rosa Parks incident mean nothing in the general scheme of things. The results are what mattered. Whoever came up with the plan, it was genius.
ReplyDeleteBy Ms. Parks calling attention to the segregationist policies and making a stand, she helped start a movement that people cared enough about to die for. Our lives are better because of it.