The passing of Rosa Parks at 92 should remind us that it was almost 50 years ago that her refusal (both brave and dangerous) to give up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama led to her arrest and conviction of violating the city’s strict segregation laws. African Americans subsequently boycotted the city’s buses for nearly 13 months despite bombings of their homes and receiving death threats.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was then the little-known 26-year-old pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, wrote in his 1958 book, Stride Toward Freedom, that “Mrs. Parks’ arrest was the precipitating factor rather than the cause of the protest. The cause lay deep in the record of injustices.”
Her quietly steadfast but personal refusal to acquiesce any longer to humiliating treatment that reinforced the notion that blacks were something less than full human beings helped spark a crusading movement led by Dr. King that made revolutionary demands and achieved positive results. Moreover, her spirit is reflected in the women’s movement in this country and protests against oppression around the world.
The lesson of her bold action is enduring and remains relevant today. Before her arrest on December 1, 1955, she and others had been complaining for years, but not acting. Blacks had been arrested and even killed for disobeying bus drivers in the South. Nevertheless, there still had been some organized efforts to resist Jim Crow laws.
However, it was Mrs. Parks who found the strength inside herself to resist the oppressive, unjust laws in Montgomery, despite the peril. She should be remembered by us and our children as a heroic person who was willing to act personally against injustice.
Her legacy should not be allowed to fade with time, because it serves as an example to keep us connected and grounded. She helped engender a stronger, more positive sense of who we are. The challenges in race relations have changed in many ways, but there has been no change in the need for us to find strength inside ourselves to take a stand with likeminded people and carry forward the work we believe in.