Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks Dies at 92
thank you rosa for all you did.
you were a very brave women.
posted by M. Martin at 7:57 AM
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks Dies at 92
thank you rosa for all you did.
you were a very brave women.
STRIDER welcomes all views & opinions...but will relentlessly bash anyone whose views and opinions are wrong.
The Wisdom of Mark Twain
THINK ABOUT YOUR FREEDOMS NOW BECAUSE SOON SOMEONE WILL BE DOING YOUR THINKING FOR YOU.
10 Comments:
I'm so glad Strider posted this. If he hadn't, I would've. Rosa Parks is one of my heros and rightly a hero of many.
I remember a few years ago when my daughter came home from school concerned because someone had pointed out that one of her classmates was black and he shouldn't be treated the same (this was actually in NJ, btw). If there's any one thing I detest, it's biggotry. But how do you explain the injustice to a child? I told her some people have brown eyes and some people have blue eyes. Some people have straight hair and some people have curly hair. Some people are short and some people are tall. But we're all still people. Same thing with the color of our skin and who we choose to love. It doesn't change the fact we're all still people.
I told her that Rosa Parks believed this too. And she was smart and strong enough to stand up for herself against the bullies and the stupid rules that said black people couldn't sit in the front of the bus or go to the same schools or drink from the same water fountains just because the color of their skin was different.
I asked my daughter this morning if she remebered who Rosa Parks was. She said, "yes, she's the lady who didn't give up her seat on the bus to the mean bullies who didn't like her just because she was black".
Lift ev'ry voice
condolences
Sar,
You do it just the way that Rosa did, with quiet dignity and by doing the right thing.
I grew up in the segregated south. After once seeing a KKK demonstration and asking the same questions as your daughter, my father explained "the facts of life" to me and did something else. He took me to visit a black man that he worked with and I asked him my questions.
I found out from him that my father, who was a supervisor, had refused to hear complaints from those who didn't want to work with him. He also told me that my father refused to go to any off-duty functions that didn't include the man.
It's these "small" actions that combat the bigotry.
Rosa,
I bid you a fond adieu.
I got up this morning and put in a tape of an old short wave program Jeffrey Bennett of the Federal Observer (www.federalobserver.com)did a few years ago. The subject of the tape is Heroes. Jeff talks about the people we called heroes when he and I were kids (in the 50's). He says most of them are gone now and ask if there are any real heroes today. I brought up the Internet and one of the 1st things I saw said Rosa Parks had died. Seemed kind of strange that I was listening to a program about heroes that have passed away when I learned we had lost another one. Rest In Peace Rosa.
God Bless America, God Save The Republic
I recently saw "A Class Divided" - I had forgotten about it. Every classroom in the world should duplicate that exercise.
Rosa is awesome and all, but I'd be remiss if I didn't speak up for my grandfather on this one.
He grew up in Wilmington NC, and is Rosa's age, so he went through the same thing, and over the course of my entire life, he's been telling me the same story.
Rosa Parks didn't give her seat up and made the news, but she wasn't the only one. According to my gramps, a lot of people took that same stand, and a lot of people got arrested. He says that around that time, this was becoming a common practice (out of frustration), and once Rosa made the news for it, the resistance had officially begun.
He never told me that story to discredit Rosa, but more to make sure I knew that there were a lot more brave people back then than just her, and she wasn't the only one that refused to be walked over.
She was a hero. She'll be missed.
As Godawful as things are today, there have been some improvements over the past few decades.
in my history of black america class we spoke a bit about rosa parks and the prof (while not putting down rosa parks) was telling us essentially the same thing maine is saying.
she went on to say that while it is presented as rosa just 'decided' to get on the bus and sit up front...the truth is that it was all planed and orchestrated by some civil rights groups. (she actually was working with the NAACP at the time.)
it was even planned that it would be a women to do it so that it was kind of a double whammy. not just a black person but a black women.
why was her contribution important...because it sparked the montgomery bus boycott that lasted (if I remember correctly) 382 days. (a year plus 17...I remember studying that) a protest lead in part by the great martin luther king jr. a few of you may have heard of him.
so while many stood their ground like maine said, this was a big moment because of unity that followed. if their was no boycott and others decided to ride the bus...her contribution may not have been as monumental as it was.
so RIP rosa and props to all who have stood up against injustice.
RIP Rosa Parks
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