ROSA PARKS’ LEGACY LIVES ON

By: David Nalin

There are many things that we take for granted today. Among these are the Civil Rights to which American citizens are entitled. As we move through our day to day lives it is very easy to forget that brave men and women made many sacrifices in order for us to have those freedoms. One such hero was Ms. Rosa Parks.

Rosa Parks was a quiet hard working seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama. She had been a volunteer with her local N.A.A.C.P. but she could hardly have been called an activist. On December 1st, 1955 she did pretty much what she did most days. She worked a long day and headed to the bus to make her way home. She complied with the rules for black bus riders at the time which were to enter the front of the bus to pay the fare then exit and reenter the back of the bus. Black riders were to take seats in a special section in the back of the bus. While it was not mandated by law, the custom of the time was for the bus driver to limit the number of seats available to blacks if the bus was full. If a white person needed a seat, the black riders were to give theirs up. Never mind that most of the bus riders in Montgomery, Alabama at the time were black.

On this winter day Rosa Parks decided that she would not give up her seat even though other black riders on the bus did. Rosa was quietly defiant. This was considered a criminal offense and so Rosa was arrested and prosecuted. Working with the N.A.A.C.P. Rosa Parks decided to fight the charges. Assigned to assist her was a young minister named Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. By modern day standards protesting a small ticket is like a very small protest. It was not a small thing in Rosa Parks’ day. In fact, she was not the first to take a stand but she was the first to fight the charges. In support of Rosas’ effort and to protest the trial, the black community organized what would become a ground breaking boycott of the bus system. In fact, the boycott ended up lasting more than a year.

Rosa was convicted of her offense but it was decided that the case would be taken higher. The end result was the Supreme Court overturning the segregation laws of the State of Alabama. As a consequence, today Rosa Parks is known as the Mother of the Modern Day Civil Rights Movement.

After the case was resolved times were not easy for Rosa and her husband Raymond. She lost her job and the two decided to move to Virginia and then eventually settled in Detroit. She worked for many years for U.S. Representative John Conyers. After retirement she dedicated her efforts to Planned Parenthood. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. Rosa Parks lived to be 1992. She died in 2005.

Rosa Parks’ legacy lives on today. There are many roadways and monuments named in her honor but the real legacy is the integrated society in which we live today. While desegregation may have been achieved without her brave act, it would no doubt have taken much longer.

Article Source: https://www.collectibles-articles.com

Rosa Parks, named The Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement, was an African-American woman born in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1913. She is most well known for her stand against racial segregation on public buses in Montgomery, Alabama. Learn more about this extraordinary woman.

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