ROSA PARKS: The Woman Who “Sat Down” For What She Believed Inby Molly Regan
[Editor's note: Back before Molly Regan became a regular poster with Blog for Iowa, she wrote this tribute to her hero, Rosa Parks, for us. Rosa Parks died yesterday at the age of 92. In her honor, we are rerunning Molly's original article.]
On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Seamstress Rosa Parks got on a bus and sat down. When she was told by a white man to move to the back of the bus, she refused, and was subsequently arrested. "Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it," wrote Parks in her book, Quiet Strength, (Zondervan Publishing House, 1994). "I kept thinking about my mother and my grandparents, and how strong they were. I knew there was a possibility of being mistreated, but an opportunity was being given to me to do what I had asked of others."
This defiant act of courage set off a flurry of incidents which resulted in violence and death over the next 10 years, and eventually led to the passage of the CIVIL RIGHTS ACT in 1965. For you see, Rosa Parks was a black woman who was not allowed in the Alabama of 1955 to ride on public transportation with the same human dignity that most of us today take for granted.
This small woman had in the past not been an overtly outspoken person regarding the shamefulness of segregation. But, on that December day 49 years ago, she defied the law and in her quiet way paved a path for others to follow. This woman from a different place and time is my hero. She exemplifies the tenacity of a fed up spirit who knew it was then that she needed to fulfill her destiny. I and millions of others are eternally grateful. We salute you, Rosa Parks.
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