Sixty years ago today, Rosa Parks took a seat for what she believes in, refusing to give up her spot on a Montgomery, AL, bus to a white passenger, violating state law. “But Rosa Parks at the end of her life was saying there’s still more work to be done”.
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NPR’s Michel Martin is in Montgomery today “to look back on the boycott, and speak with the new generation carrying the civil rights torch”.
Fred Gray, the legendary civil rights lawyer who represented Rosa Parks during the boycott, was also in attendance on Tuesday, as well as Benjamin Crump, the president of the National Bar Association, who has represented the families of Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin. Alabama will hold its Democratic presidential primary on March 1, along with other states with large black populations like Georgia and Arkansas.
This united effort deprived the business community and the transportation system of tens of thousands of dollars that Black citizens contributed to the economy of Montgomery.
The boycott ended 385 days after the incident when the Supreme Court struck down the Alabama and Montgomery laws as being in violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Her arrest sparked the 381-day boycott of Montgomery buses by blacks to protest segregated seating.
On October 24, 2005, Rosa Louise McCauley Parks died in her Detroit home, at the age of 92. News of it spread globally, and galvanized the conscience of America. She counted as a personal hero Malcolm X, whose ethical standard that violence was sometimes necessary stands in stark contrast to the civil-rights movement’s historical reputation of nonviolent resistance. Mary Louise Smith, Aurelia Browder and Susie McDonald – who were all plaintiffs in the case that moved the U.S. Supreme Court to rule bus segregation unconstitutional – also refused to move from their seats before Parks did. She writes that the man – who she called “Mr. Charlie” – was let into the house by Sam, another African-American employee, and how Mr. Charlie got himself a drink, put his hands on her waist, and attempted to make a move on her. Rosa’s resolve to never consent to the man was strong, no matter the consequences. “The only exhausted I was was exhausted of giving”. She was the first woman to receive the honor, and her coffin sat on the catafalque built for the coffin of Abraham Lincoln. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley – each pitch as they court black voters who will help choose a nominee. They praise Parks’ compassion and dedication to the dispossessed, while out of the other side of their mouths they propose legislation to weaken and destroy Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public education and child services.
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That defiance of the white oppressor remained with Rosa Parks throughout her life.
