Farewell, Rosa Parks

Of all of the TWIT obituaries I've written, today's has saddened me the most.  I'm very sad to report that Rosa Parks, the matriarch of civil rights, has died.  She was 92.  Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern civil rights movement.  Mrs. Parks was 42 when she committed the act of defiance in 1955 - an act that would change the course of American history and earn her the title of "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.

Mrs. Parks, a seamstress, was riding a Montgomery, Alabama city bus on December 1, 1955, when a white man demanded her seat.  At that time, Jim Crow laws in place since the post-Civil War Reconstruction required a separation of the races on buses and in restaurants and public buildings throughout the South, while legally sanctioned racial discrimination kept blacks out of many jobs and neighborhoods in the North.  Mrs. Parks refused to give up her seat, despite rules requiring blacks to yield their seats to whites.  Rosa was arrested, jailed and fined $14.  Her arrest triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system, organized by a then little-known Baptist minister, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.  The Mongomery bus boycott marked the start of the modern civil rights movement.  The movement culminated in the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act, which banned racial discrimination. 

After taking her public stand for civil rights, Mrs. Parks had trouble finding work in Alabama.  Amid threats and harassment, she and her husband Raymond moved to Detroit in 1957, where she lived the rest of her life.  She worked as an aide in the Detroit office of Democratic U.S. Rep. John Conyers from 1965 until retiring in 1988.  In 1996, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded to civilians making the outstanding contributions to American life.  Three years later, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian honor.

Rosa Parks' impact on America was immeasurable.  She truly changed the course of history, but she said that history too often misrepresented her intent.  She said that history often said that "my feet were hurting and I didn't know why I refused to stand up when they told me. But the real reason of m not standing up was I felt that I had a right to be treated as any other passenger."  She said that while most believe she was physically tired and didn't want to stand up, Rosa Parks said she was "tired of giving in."

Her physical presence will be missed by her family and friends, but her spirit will live on forever. I'm sure that Rosa Parks rode to her home in Glory proudly sitting in the front of the bus.  May Rosa Parks rest in the peace and dignity she deserves.