October 24, 2005
A Hero Passes On
by Jeff Langstraat
Rose Parks died today. She was 92.
Rosa Parks is an American hero. One of the reasons I love her story is this--it shows that lifetime dedicated to creating change can have an impact. Rosa Parks was more than an old woman who was too tired to give up her seat. Rosa Parks was an activist. She was the youth secretary for the local NAACP. She had gone to the Highlander Folk School for training in non-violent resistance. She had run into trouble on the buses before that fateful encounter of 1955.
Organizers in Montgomery were looking for a case to use to spur a boycott of the segregated buses. Such an approach had been succesful in Baton Rouge, and NAACP leaders in the two communities were in contact with each other, discussing strategies for attacking Jim Crow. The first woman who was going to be used as a symbolic spark for the Montgomery boycott turned out to be problematic in terms of public relations, so the boycott was put off until Mrs. Parks engaged in her now-famous act of civil disobedience. The initially planned one-day boycott lasted for over a year. Rosa Parks became the symbol for a movement.
When we discuss Mrs. Parks and her role in the movement, much of this background, much of her background, is left out. She is transformed from a community activist working for years to dismantle an unjust system to a person who one day just got fed up with the indignity. I like the other story better. Rosa Parks is someone who took not just one small action, but who devoted large parts of her life to challenging American apartheid. That is a life worth emulating.
During the Montgomery boycott's, a seventy-year old woman was quoted as saying, "My feet is tired, but my soul is rested." May your soul find rest, Mrs. Parks. You've earned it.
Posted by in Activism, Civil Rights, Obituary
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