Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Women in History


Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913– October 24, 2005)

Rosa Parks


Nearly 50 years earlier, Parks had famously refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus. Parks' act of civil disobedience inspired blacks in Montgomery to boycott the city's buses for more than a year and to successfully challenge the Jim Crow laws that confined them to second-class status in the city.

Jim Crow Museum

"My only concern was to get home after a hard day's work."
Rosa Parks


"It was not pre-arranged. It just happened that the driver made and demand and I just didn't feel like obeying his demand . . . I was quite tired after spending a full day working"
Rosa Parks

"Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it."~Rosa Parks


Henry Ford Museum

Known today as "the mother of the Civil Rights Movement," Parks almost single-handedly set in motion a veritable revolution in the southern United States, a revolution that would eventually secure equal treatment under the law for all black Americans. "For those who lived through the unsettling 1950s and 1960s and joined the civil rights struggle, the soft-spoken Rosa Parks was more, much more than the woman who refused to give up her bus seat to a White man in Montgomery, Alabama," wrote Richette L. Haywood in Jet. "(Hers) as anact that forever changed White America's view of Black people, and forever changed America itself."
"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear." ~Rosa Parks
"Have you ever been hurt and the place tries to heal a bit, and you just pull the scar off of it over and over again." ~Rosa Parks

"I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move." ~Rosa Parks

Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia

The struggle helped turn Montgomery preacher Martin Luther King Jr. into a national civil rights icon. In her final years, Parks was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.
" Whatever my individual desires were to be free, I was not alone. There were many others who felt the same way." ~Rosa Parks



Meeting
With Mother Teresa in Detroit in 1981
Photo By Harold Robison
Detroit News/WPN

"I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people." ~ Rosa Parks


"Each person must live their life as a model for others. "~Rosa Parks


"Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others."~Rosa Parks

As most of my regular reader know I write these posts for my own education as well as for therapy for my illness.

Up until now, my formal education in High School and College the Jim Crow law were only briefly mentioned in "passing". Perhaps it was because I was not a History Major however, this research was truly an eye opening experience for me. I had no idea the extent of the (black codes) in conjuction with Jim Crow laws. I strongly advise everyone to follow the links in this post as well as the ones posted below.

For a video on Rosa Parks life and times.

Thompson Gale

Time 100: Rosa Parks

A photo essay

Have a great day everyone! Comments are always appreciated.

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N Posted by Rain at 11/15/2006 11:34:00 AM

3 Comments

  • Blogger Marie posted at 7:39 PM  
    She was truly an amazing woman! One of the original pioneers of the civil rights movement! I wrote a blog about her death on the blog. Search the archives to read the post!

  • Blogger Rain posted at 1:06 AM  
    Hi Marie!

    Rosa Parks was indeed an amazing woman! I read your post on her, it is excellent and heartfelt. :)

    Pat,
    Growing up in So. California, I had the privlege of living in one of the first school district in the nation not to have segregated schools. Whites, Mexican, Blacks and Indians went to school together as early as the 1800's.

    When having dinner with my father last night he recalled signs posted in downtown San Diego in the 1950's that said "Dogs and Saliors must stay off the grass"!

    I remember when I was a child my mother had a "male" friend S, from Georgia who came to stay with us. We had gone out to dinner and a black man with a white woman were seated at the table next to ours. My mothers friend said, "I just can't see how you can live in a city that allows that!" Of course I was so young I had no idea what he was talking about. Needless to say S left a couple days after our night out, never to be seen or spoken about again.

    That is why, this post was an eye opening experience. Have a wonderful day!

  • Blogger Geoffe posted at 3:40 AM  
    We have an exhibit right now at my university that is on loan from the Jim Crow museum. Some great artifacts from Rosa as well as many items from the civil rights movement.

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