Rosa Parks leaves the path
Rosa Parks died yesterday. (Hat tip La Shawn Barber.) Her act of defiance changed our country forever.
Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern civil rights movement, died Monday evening. She was 92. Mrs. Parks died at her home during the evening of natural causes, with close friends by her side, said Gregory Reed, an attorney who represented her for the past 15 years. Mrs. Parks was 42 when she committed an act of defiance in 1955 that was to change the course of American history and earn her the title "mother of the civil rights movement." At that time, Jim Crow laws in place since the post-Civil War Reconstruction required separation of the races in buses, restaurants and public accommodations throughout the South, while legally sanctioned racial discrimination kept blacks out of many jobs and neighborhoods in the North. The Montgomery, Ala., seamstress, an active member of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was riding on a city bus Dec. 1, 1955, when a white man demanded her seat. Mrs. Parks refused, despite rules requiring blacks to yield their seats to whites. Two black Montgomery women had been arrested earlier that year on the same charge, but Mrs. Parks was jailed. She also was fined $14.
Today we blame our President for the suffering of minorities in the wake of hurricane Katrina, Mrs. Parks defied the system in a time where such an act really was dangerous and illegal. Thanks to her courage, and the courage of many others, government sanctioned segregation is a thing of the past. We as a country are better for it today.
God speed, Mrs. Parks.
UPDATE: La Shawn Barber has a great list of links to bloggers and their comments about Rosa Parks. Check it out.
Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern civil rights movement, died Monday evening. She was 92. Mrs. Parks died at her home during the evening of natural causes, with close friends by her side, said Gregory Reed, an attorney who represented her for the past 15 years. Mrs. Parks was 42 when she committed an act of defiance in 1955 that was to change the course of American history and earn her the title "mother of the civil rights movement." At that time, Jim Crow laws in place since the post-Civil War Reconstruction required separation of the races in buses, restaurants and public accommodations throughout the South, while legally sanctioned racial discrimination kept blacks out of many jobs and neighborhoods in the North. The Montgomery, Ala., seamstress, an active member of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was riding on a city bus Dec. 1, 1955, when a white man demanded her seat. Mrs. Parks refused, despite rules requiring blacks to yield their seats to whites. Two black Montgomery women had been arrested earlier that year on the same charge, but Mrs. Parks was jailed. She also was fined $14.
Today we blame our President for the suffering of minorities in the wake of hurricane Katrina, Mrs. Parks defied the system in a time where such an act really was dangerous and illegal. Thanks to her courage, and the courage of many others, government sanctioned segregation is a thing of the past. We as a country are better for it today.
God speed, Mrs. Parks.
UPDATE: La Shawn Barber has a great list of links to bloggers and their comments about Rosa Parks. Check it out.
posted by CT at 10/25/2005 09:26:00 AM
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