- Joined
- Jul 27, 2003
Rosa Parks Dead at 92
- Thread starter Piel
- Start date
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2003
while death is always sad... she had 92 years... and in her later years she was looked on as a hero by most...
may her family continued to be blessed and comforted during this time
may her family continued to be blessed and comforted during this time
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
I first met Mrs. Parks 40 years ago. Yesterday I went down to the African American museum here in Detroit, along with 30,000 other people, to say goodbye.
Don't let that beatific smile fool you. She was a tough old bird. It was not by accident that Martin King and his NAACP/SCLC advisors chose her as their lightning rod. They needed a person with
(a) an absolutely unblemished life record, so that nothing could be brought up against her later to the discredit of the fledgling civil rights movement; and
(b) the toughness to take what everyone knew was ahead of her.
Mrs. Parks spent the whole rest of her life trying to dispel the "urban myth" that she had refused to give up her seat because "her feet were tired." She wasn't tired, she was sick and tired. Sick and tired of being sick and tired.
It is hard for us to remember, and for young people to imagine, the extent to which segregation dominated society in that place and time. If you were black and wanted to ride the bus, you got on at the front, paid your money, then got off and went back to the rear door to get on again (hoping that the driver would not just drive off and keep the money). This was so that you would not have to pass though the white section on your way to the "colored" section at the back of the bus.
Now suppose you are sitting in the first row of the colored section. The seat next to you is vacant, and there are two people sitting in the same row across the aisle. A white person gets on. Naturally he can't sit next to you, so you have to get up and go stand in the back. And so do the other two people across the aisle, because now that row is part of the "white section."
In the event, Mrs. Parks jumped the gun. The opportunity to take her stand came a little before Rev. King's organization was fully ready for the Montgomery bus boycott, so they had to scramble.
Seize the day.
MM
Don't let that beatific smile fool you. She was a tough old bird. It was not by accident that Martin King and his NAACP/SCLC advisors chose her as their lightning rod. They needed a person with
(a) an absolutely unblemished life record, so that nothing could be brought up against her later to the discredit of the fledgling civil rights movement; and
(b) the toughness to take what everyone knew was ahead of her.
Mrs. Parks spent the whole rest of her life trying to dispel the "urban myth" that she had refused to give up her seat because "her feet were tired." She wasn't tired, she was sick and tired. Sick and tired of being sick and tired.
It is hard for us to remember, and for young people to imagine, the extent to which segregation dominated society in that place and time. If you were black and wanted to ride the bus, you got on at the front, paid your money, then got off and went back to the rear door to get on again (hoping that the driver would not just drive off and keep the money). This was so that you would not have to pass though the white section on your way to the "colored" section at the back of the bus.
Now suppose you are sitting in the first row of the colored section. The seat next to you is vacant, and there are two people sitting in the same row across the aisle. A white person gets on. Naturally he can't sit next to you, so you have to get up and go stand in the back. And so do the other two people across the aisle, because now that row is part of the "white section."
In the event, Mrs. Parks jumped the gun. The opportunity to take her stand came a little before Rev. King's organization was fully ready for the Montgomery bus boycott, so they had to scramble.
Seize the day.
MM
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2003
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Saturday night November 5 around 11:00 PM, I was watching TV flipping through the channels and saw her memorial service on CSPAN. What a joy it was to watch that and not realize it was aready 2:00 AM. Some of the comments were rather thought provoking; they had to vote to let her lie in rest at the capitol. The comments were what precedence would it set???? Amazing!!!!
Dee
Dee
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