Myths behind Rosa Parks
Kathleen Cleaver, if you need refreshing, see yesterday's blog entry, spoke atConnecticut College. the myth is that Ms. Parks was so tired from her long hard day as a seamstress, she wouldn't rise and accidentally started the Civil Rights movement. She was tired, but not the physical kind.
Wikipedia shares the real story in her own words, "During a 1956 radio interview with Sydney Rogers in West Oakland several months after her arrest, when asked why she had decided not to vacate her bus seat, Parks said, "I would have to know for once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen of Montgomery, Alabama."
Parks also detailed her motivation in her autobiography, My Story
People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."
But she didn't appear out of the blue. She was the secretary of the local NAACP chapter. her role model was Septima Clark, from South Carolina who, "work[ed] to establish citizenship schools throughout the 11 states of the Deep South. When legislation called for Americans to be able to read and interpret portions of the Constitution in order to register to vote, Mrs. Clark devoted her time to teaching these skills to thousands of southern blacks. Based on her experiences at the Highlander Folk School near Chattanooga, Tennessee, the citizenship schools were formed to teach blacks to read, write and understand the basic structure of the government." the chapter had been waiting for the best political opportunity to bring this unjust humiliation to court. Boycotts were already planned. Well, she was arrested Thurs Dec 1, 1955. By midnight the next day flyers were printed up by and for the black community of Montgomery Ala. for a one day bus boycott. when the local newspaper found out, they put it on the front page, which got the message out to all the rest of the black community who didn't get the flyer. the local police thoguht to escort the buses in case there was trouble which only helped to scare off any blacks who thougth they'd ride anyway. it was so successful that at a rally monday night, the black community decided to continue the boycott. not only were teh bus companies losing money but the downtown merchants no longer had the foot traffic in the weeks before Christmas. The bus companies depended on the black population for 60% of their business. the bus companies thought they'd punish the community by not driving lines through black neighborhoods anymore. but they only succeeded in removing the temptation for those who missed the convenience. then the city council decided to harass black drivers with multiple traffic violations. then people thought firebombing homes would work.
somehow the montgomery grand jury concluded that the boycott was illegal and they issued arrest warrants for 115 people, one of whom was Martin Luther King Jr. this brought even more negative press from around the world. eventually only MLK went to trial and he was convicted of a misdemeanor, and his fine was paid. a year later, the courts ordered the city to desegregate the buses. the boycott had lasted 382 days.
Rosa and her husband could no longer find work in the city and ended up in Detroit where her brother lived.
Wikipedia shares the real story in her own words, "During a 1956 radio interview with Sydney Rogers in West Oakland several months after her arrest, when asked why she had decided not to vacate her bus seat, Parks said, "I would have to know for once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen of Montgomery, Alabama."
Parks also detailed her motivation in her autobiography, My Story
People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."
But she didn't appear out of the blue. She was the secretary of the local NAACP chapter. her role model was Septima Clark, from South Carolina who, "work[ed] to establish citizenship schools throughout the 11 states of the Deep South. When legislation called for Americans to be able to read and interpret portions of the Constitution in order to register to vote, Mrs. Clark devoted her time to teaching these skills to thousands of southern blacks. Based on her experiences at the Highlander Folk School near Chattanooga, Tennessee, the citizenship schools were formed to teach blacks to read, write and understand the basic structure of the government." the chapter had been waiting for the best political opportunity to bring this unjust humiliation to court. Boycotts were already planned. Well, she was arrested Thurs Dec 1, 1955. By midnight the next day flyers were printed up by and for the black community of Montgomery Ala. for a one day bus boycott. when the local newspaper found out, they put it on the front page, which got the message out to all the rest of the black community who didn't get the flyer. the local police thoguht to escort the buses in case there was trouble which only helped to scare off any blacks who thougth they'd ride anyway. it was so successful that at a rally monday night, the black community decided to continue the boycott. not only were teh bus companies losing money but the downtown merchants no longer had the foot traffic in the weeks before Christmas. The bus companies depended on the black population for 60% of their business. the bus companies thought they'd punish the community by not driving lines through black neighborhoods anymore. but they only succeeded in removing the temptation for those who missed the convenience. then the city council decided to harass black drivers with multiple traffic violations. then people thought firebombing homes would work.
somehow the montgomery grand jury concluded that the boycott was illegal and they issued arrest warrants for 115 people, one of whom was Martin Luther King Jr. this brought even more negative press from around the world. eventually only MLK went to trial and he was convicted of a misdemeanor, and his fine was paid. a year later, the courts ordered the city to desegregate the buses. the boycott had lasted 382 days.
Rosa and her husband could no longer find work in the city and ended up in Detroit where her brother lived.
Comments