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Rosa Parks photo by Leandre Jackson
written by The Yeti of Rainlane.com
Time to take a stand, or, in this case, not to take a stand.
On Oct 24th 2005, a 92-year old, diminutive and soft-spoken woman who is not a person of great monetary wealth, and who held no high office, nor has any royal lineage, died in Detroit Michigan. A few days later, her casket was flown to Washington D.C. where it laid in state in the Capital Rotunda―the first civilian ever to have that honor.
50,000 people came to pay respect, among them dignitaries of many levels and faiths, including President Bush. A public funeral was held on November 2nd, 2005-- a scheduled 4 hours affair that stretch into seven. Keynote speakers included former president Clinton, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, megastar talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey and senator Reverend Jesse Jackson.
At the conclusion of the service, an honour guard draped the American flag over the casket and put it on a horse-drawn hearse as if it were the funeral procession of a president.
Who is this woman? What has she done to deserve such pomp and circumstance after death?
Her name is Rosa Parks, an African American, who, in 1955, was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for not giving up her seat on a bus to a white man. Her action sparked the civil rights movement of the 50s to 70s that transformed the American racial landscape.
In the pre-segregated American South, the "Jim Crow" law separates the Whites and the Blacks in every aspect of their daily lives: schools, restaurants, transportations... Several rows of seat in the back of buses were reserved for "Colors." (There was actually a sign that said, "Color", hung on a chain, to divide the White section from the Color section.) In Montgomery, there was a city bylaw that allowed the bus driver to reassign seats should Whites on the bus found no empty ones. On that particular day, Rosa Parks was sitting on the first row of seats reserved for Blacks. When extra white passengers boarding the bus found no space to sit, the driver re-assigned her row to the Whites and asked the four blacks, including Rosa, to stand up. Parks refused. The bus driver warned her that she would be arrested, and Parks said, "I don't think I should have to stand up", and remained seated. The bus driver called the police and she was arrested.
Her arrest sparked what is now known in U.S. history as the "Montgomery Bus Boycott" that lasted over a year (381 days). Just over 50 black activists did the initial organization, and selected a young and rather inexperienced new Baptist minister in the neighbourhood by the name of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the president of the protest organization. And it was at this time that King gave one of his many inspirational speeches. In this first speech he delivered to about 7000, he said, "There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression."
Much to the surprise of the White residents, the boycott went peacefully without coercion―the Whites were suspecting "enforcer goon squads" to be around forcing the blacks not to take buses. At the end, the Supreme Court struck down the segregation law and a joyous Martin Luther King Jr. and his followers ride the buses in celebration.
The Rosa Parks incident directly precipitated the formation of the American Black Civil Rights movement, and propelled a young Martin Luther King Jr. to the forefront. But the road is long and hard, and it would be close to 10 years before King delivered his famous speech of "[url=http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/Ihaveadream.htm]I have a dream" (i) in the "March On Washington."
Although many forms of discrimination still exist in American Society today, many of the roadblocks have been removed. Blacks enjoy equal access to schools, jobs and recreational facilities. TV ads are a good barometer of the attitude of society. When I first came to North America in 1961, TV ads featured only White people. In the last 20 years, there are lots of ads with black couples. In the recent five years, mixed Orientals and white couples start appearing on ads. White-and-black couples still seem to be taboo. (There may be some appearing, but I have not seen any of it yet myself.)
As Condoleezza Rice said in her eulogy at Rosa Parks' funeral, "If it had not been for Rosa Parks, I might not have been Secretary of States."
When asked why she did what she did, Rosa Parks said, "I did not want to be mistreated, I did not want to be deprived of a seat that I had paid for. It was just time... there was opportunity for me to take a stand to express the way I felt about being treated in that manner. I had not planned to get arrested. I had plenty to do without having to end up in jail. But when I had to face that decision, I didn't hesitate to do so because I felt that we had endured that too long. The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment, the more oppressive it became."
Despite all its faults, America seems to have the power to slowly right itself of its wrongs. Of course, like any other societies, there are still injustice and corruption, crime and urban decay. But in the United States, you can at least hope that something could be done through the legal system. I don't have much love for the American Society, and that's why I left to come back to Canada. ("Back" because I went to Canada first.) . But fair is fair, and I must give them credit for being able to look into themselves, find what is wrong, and, slowly but surely, correct it.
Mug shot (ii) of Rosa Parks in 1955 (from Google image)
Notes:
(i) http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/Ihaveadream.htm
(ii) A mug shot is a picture of a person's face, especially for police files. |
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