Tags
African-American Civil Rights movement, Alabama, B4Peace, Capitol Rotunda, civil rights, Claudette Colvin, December 1955, King, Lay in Honor, Martin Luther King, Merv Griffin Show, Montgomery, Montgomery bus boycott, NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Youth Council, Rosa Parks
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Activist
Born: February 4, 1913, Tuskegee, AL
Died: October 24, 2005, Detroit, MI
Disorderly Conduct: December 1, 1955, Montgomery, AL
Lay in Honor: October 30-31, 2005, U.S. Capitol Rotunda, Washington, DC
As the story goes
Rosa Parks finished her day as a department store seamstress, and that particular day, she was really feeling tired – tied of prejudicial treatment. When the bus came, she paid her fare and absent mindedly took a seat, and a while later, after stops and passengers entering and leaving the bus, when the driver announced that blacks had to get up so whites could sit down, Rosa Parks said no. It was the law and she wasn’t the first black passenger to say no and Parks wasn’t the first to be tossed off the bus or arrested either. Pressure had been greatly increased earlier in the year when a 15-year-old girl, Claudette Colvin, was arrested on March 2, 1955, for refusing to give up her seat to a white person. She was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Youth Council.
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Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott
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On that particular day of December 1, 1955, it wasn’t understood by the nation that Rosa Parks was happily married, gainfully employed, attractive and serious, and a member of the NAACP — and that added up to the perfect score for Civil Disobedience and the early African-American Civil Rights movement. It was the perfect combination of conditions for the city that was about to get the world’s attention. Overnight, thousands of flyers were copied and by that next morning, huge numbers of Montgomery’s blacks were boycotting the bus company.
Parks was fired from her job. After this, very few blacks would ride and the events brought national attention to Montgomery — many blacks even rode mules or got sore feet. Black cabbies began to drive their black passengers for 10¢ (the same fare the bus company charged) — later on, their insurance would be canceled.
Martin Luther King, Jr. made speeches, and his house was firebombed. Two white men, Raymond D. York and Sonny Kyle Livingston, confessed to the bombing, but were acquitted anyway. Other whites spoke out against the violence, and it eventually subsided.
Fifty-five weeks after the boycott began, the Supreme Court ruled that since blacks and whites paid the same fare, they had the same right to a seat, and on 20 December 1956, Mrs. Parks paid 10¢ and sat wherever she pleased.
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Rosa Parks Interview (Merv Griffin Show 1983):
Program Description
Civil Rights leader Rosa Parks tells Merv the famous story of her refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955 and her subsequent arrest— the event widely regarded as the spark which lit the flames of the Civil Rights Movement. She also talks about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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For a complete list of individuals who have lain in state or lain in honor in the Capitol Rotunda, see The Architect of the Capitol website.
For more on Rosa Parks and related articles, see Wikipedia.
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Thanks for learning with me. I hope you’ll check back frequently. There is lots more to learn.
Need help or want to collaborate with me? Just e-mail me at thehunt4truth@yahoo.com
Thanks for visiting.
Eric
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Related articles
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I think we all have our “things” we advocate for. I think mine is going to be fighting for disabled people and pain patients since we are very discriminated against. I’ve had so many misdiagnosed problems and refusal to treat me but somehow they get away with it on some technicality. And we wonder why healthcare is so high! I think it’s a crime against humanity but most aren’t operating on the big picture idea of humanity and it bums me out when I see a veteran, without legs, sitting on a sidewalk begging for money. I write politicians, but they don’t write back (except that I did get a governor candidate, who asked me to email all my ideas and research to his campaign manager, who then wrote back and were going to use my ideas; but then the candidate quit due to wife divorcing him and he needed to be there for his kids)
Hey, that it a wonderful precious idea — do whatever you can though; be satisfied to make some progress. It takes time to make extensive progress.
Your example is a good one. Maybe you might collect that information again and begin blogging about it. My friend Gator Woman blogs about animals – she speaks up for them to us (http://walkingwiththealligators.wordpress.com/) and when I started following her blog, hardly anyone visited there – its growing and she is learning and progress is being made and she deeply cares about what she’s doing. The more I visit her blog, the more I see that I can help her and the more she seems to make it painless and easy too for me to help her. Meantime we learn a bit about each others passions and we find we can support each others needs just a little and it helps us both.
I care about you making a difference. Its good for you and good for me.
I deeply care about what I am dong here. What I am doing is helping others see that they can make a difference.
I understand what some website and bloggers announce and then do nothing about — this is a new age of consciousness awakening – a dawning of much higher awareness — and I know that means someone has to be in these trenches pumping out what the awakening age is about – acceptance, tolerance, loving and caring, compassion. empathy, and so on… making a difference by being different – actually taking time to help out the world and fellow beings – human or plant or animal or environmental. Even the planet maybe is a being for all I can say… I kind of think it is.
I do this because I deeply understand that I can and therefore I am “called” to do it.
If people were not doing what I do, the new age of higher consciousness would be just a fantasy. In the vision that I see of it this is the right and real time for action – acting as if – as if it already happened. Its clear as the morning air to me.
The candidate quit – you don’t. You diversify.
Set this current blog of yours or another blog up and do it.
Find the Web contact addresses and write up the petitions or find them and Do It.
If you need encouragements or a reblog or whatever I might do to help – you let me know.
Thanks for making comment. 🙂
~ Eric
On a visit to South Africa in 1969, I rode the bus and decided to sit on the first available seat. I was told by someone on the bus, I was in the wrong place. This was a seat reserved for ‘blacks” – I had to move. I remember it being a scary ordeal. Made no sense to me. We have come a long way since the 1960’s. eve 🙂
Yes, thanks for sharing that Eve.
Actually the problems are still huge. All over the “civilized” world there are racial tensions and problems of economies, debt and jobs and its a big problem to keep the order much less develop positive outcomes.
There still are racists organizations of all sorts. We do have progress in the US – there is much more to do.
I do not post about negativity you understand. However, I want to share about the tensions that still we must address. There is tension presently all over America with Latin and African-American peoples.
As Latin American immigrants move into traditionally African-American parts of New York City, tensions have increased between the groups and occasionally result in violence.
The alleged gang rape of an 11-year-old girl by at least 18 boys and young men has sparked shame and outrage in a tiny Texas town, but it has also stirred racial tensions that threaten to split the East Texas hamlet. All of the defendants arrested are African-American and the girl is Hispanic.
Wow, Eric – your words moved me to tears reading this blog post. What Rosa Parks did, took a great amount of courage. But, I also think she was simply fed up and enough was enough. Her impact on civil rights will always be felt. Thank you for so eloquently sharing this bit of African American history – very much appreciated it.
Rosa and many more… those times were very sore. There is much still to be done.
So true, we’ve come a long way, but still have a ways to go. Knowing and understanding history is a sure way to ensure it doesn’t repeat itself. And, it shows us what areas we still need to work on.
Kim, I don’t know if you noticed the link http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/claudette-colvin/
Claudette Colvin was actually an important part of the success – and there were the thousands that walked instead of ride or made do somehow in another way… there were the whites that sympathized and said so – there were the nightly news and morning papers – it was a huge problem that required massive effort of millions of people all in all.
We still are needing millions of people to take a step or two to be positive for social reforms. I can inspire a few people a day now and I’ll continue in a month to get better at it and then the next month even better – I will be making an impact always that counts… not to be a hot shot leader of reform but to be able to go to bed with a smile on my face and wake up the next morning fresh and happy to do a little more.
It will be even easier for some more bright and more social people than I and I’ll be here to help them.
Its a nice way to spend my time. What I make myself learn and learn to write is making me a better father, teacher, blogger, person and I don’t miss what I give up to do it more. I still watch some TV. I still hoot some pool games. I just care more so about learning to be the better me than ever I did in the past. It feels good.
History did provide many lessons. One of the best is that it takes a little bit of time every day and in time there is a big change. When the broadcasts stopped most of the people went home.