“The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” ~Rosa Parks
http://youtu.be/JKCsZc37esU Sister Rosa~The Neville Brothers
On a December evening in 1955, Rosa Parks boarded a bus in Montgomery, AL, after a long day’s work. She paid her fare, took her seat in the “colored” section and waited for the bus driver to take her to the stop where she would walk home. She had not intended to create a stir that day – to NOT make a move of historical proportions. She had not planned on acting out in civil disobedience on that day which, in turn, would be the catalyst for a major civil right’s protest and boycott. But, on December 1st, when Bus Driver, James F. Blake demanded that Mrs. Parks and three other black passengers on the bus give up their seats in favor of white passengers who had just boarded, and she politely refused, that’s exactly what she did. She created a stir of historical proportions!
Mrs. Parks has stated that when Mr. Blake stepped back toward the four of them and waved his hands at them, barking orders to them to move out of the seats they had paid for, “I felt a determination cover my body like a quilt on a winter night.”
Her further account of Mr. Blake’s demand was that he warned, “Y’all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats.”
She recalled that three of them acquiesced, but she refused. Instead, she moved toward the window seat, but did not get up to relocate to the re-designated colored section of the bus.
She sat still by the window, minding her own business, but the bus driver would not let it go. He persisted in asking why she would not stand up, and she told him that she didn’t think she should have to. It was at that point that he threatened to call the police and have her arrested.
“You may do that,” Mrs. Parks replied.
And, the rest is history.
When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white man, it set off a chain of events which helped change the course of history. It spurred a city-wide bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama several days later that would ultimately lead to desegregation on public transit systems.
Mrs. Parks has said in the aftermath of that event, that as she was being arrested, she knew that “it was going to be the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind...”
And, so it was.
In a 1992 interview with National Public Radio, Mrs. Parks reflected on that December day in 1955, when she decided to stay seated in order to stand up to injustice:
“I did not want to be mistreated; I did not want to be deprived of a seat that I had paid for. It was just time... there was opportunity for me to take a stand to express the way I felt about being treated in that manner. I had not planned to get arrested. I had plenty to do without having to end up in jail. But, when I had to face that decision, I didn’t hesitate to do so because I felt that we had endured that too long. The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment, the more oppressive it became.”
I’ve thought a lot about that incident over the years — Rosa Parks’ unassuming yet mighty protest in the face of iniquity. It took a special kind of courage to stand firm in unwavering resolve, especially when someone bigger, brutish and extremely inconsiderate was staring you down. It took a rare kind of fortitude to encourage someone to call the police on you and quietly wait for them to come and arrest you for doing nothing more than being unwilling to relinquish a seat that you had already paid for and deserved to remain in. It took a genteel, black woman to stand up to a white man; a state; a nation; and the world and proclaim that she was not going to be pushed around any more by unfair laws and unjust practices. And, when she rose up, a movement rose up along with her and toppled those laws that had served to treat them less than the rest of humanity. What an inspiration her example has been these last five plus decades!
Rosa Parks played a significant role in raising not only awareness in our country but an international awareness, as well, regarding the dilemma that African Americans faced during the civil rights struggle. Dr. King wrote in his book Stride Toward Freedom that Mrs. Parks’ arrest was the catalyst for protest: “The cause lay deep in the record of similar injustices...no one can understand the action of Mrs. Parks unless he realizes that eventually the cup of endurance runs over, and the human personality cries out, ‘I can take it no longer.’”
December 1st, 1955 was the moment when her cup of endurance ran over, and she said “enough.” And, the world is all the better for that singular, grand gesture of civil disobedience by Rosa Parks.
Never let it be said that one person cannot change the world...
Today would have been Rosa Parks' 101st birthday. We celebrate and honor her...
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