A lot has been written about Rosa Parks - and I don’t know that I can do better. What strikes me about her most famous action, refusing to move to the back of a bus December 1, 1955 at about 6 PM after a day’s work at a department store, was how it crystalized a movement, providing a clear symbol of what was wrong - and how to make things right. That the event may not have been entirely spontaneous does not detract from it. Rosa Parks and the Montgomery, Alabama NAACP where she served as a secretary to the president, E.D. Nixon, properly gaged the times and answered them in a way that ultimately benefitted America by making us address segregation. As Julian Bond, Chair of the NAACP Board of Directors recently said, Rosa Parks’ “quiet example demonstrated to millions new ways to confront the evil of segregation.”
We deal with many real problems in America today. A war launched on lies that continues to kill Americans and Iraqis. The loss of economic opportunity, prosperity and security. The erosion of civil liberties. The list goes on. Among the things we can learn from Rosa Parks, her legacy to us, is that one person can make a tremendous difference. Another thing is that finding an event that clarifies a problem can move the public and create conditions that change America and Americans. Rosa Parks did that - and for her noble efforts she deserves our gratitude and recognition.
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