Call her “the woman who refused to get up,” but I’m sure Rosa Parks had no idea what her tired feet and frustrating treatment would lead to on December 1, 1955.
What became known as the Civil Rights movement was bound to start sooner or later. It was only a matter of time before blacks would reject all that “back of the bus” and “Whites Only” nonsense. In a country where they were paying taxes, too? Please. I’m surprised the movement didn’t hit America with full force 10-15 years earlier when black men were fighting for their country in WWII (see Against All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic).
December 1, 1955, was also the beginning of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted about a year. Blacks refused to ride the buses in Montgomery, Alabama, until November 13, 1956, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregation on buses unconstitutional. Despite its embarrassing and often pathetic history, America is still, by far, the greatest country in the world, no matter what color you happen to be.
Parks and her husband Raymond didn’t have children, as far as I can tell from news accounts of her life. In a way, I suppose those she inspired to stand up to injustice were her offspring. Once people understand the power they have in a free country, the moral authority to demand justice, watch out. I once heard this line from a movie: “Change the way people think, and things will never be the same.”
Whatever her reasons that fateful day, I’m glad she decided to stay in her seat.
- Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks Dies at 92
- Civil rights icon Rosa Parks dies at 92 (with video)
- Jim Crow Redux
- Truth Be Told
- Wikipedia
If you’ve blogged about Rosa Parks, link and trackback to this post, and I’ll link to yours. I heard that Haloscan is now compatible with WordPress; if not or you don’t have a trackback feature on your blog, use Simpletracks.
Bloggers: Michelle Malkin, Outside the Beltway, Wizbang, Vodkapundit, Tapscott’s Copy Desk, Down with Absolutes, Infinity Prolonged, Rajan Rishyakaran, Poliblog, Fried Baloney, Legacy Matters, Dustbury, Project Nothing!, Iowa Voice, B Relevant, Right Faith, Right We Are, The Subjective Scribe, Severe Writer’s Block, JamulBlog, The Anchoress…
More bloggers: Randy Thomas (of Exodus International), Brutally Honest, Independent Conservative, Samantha Pierce, Agent Tim, Crime Scene Blog, Sister Toldjah, Secular Blasphemy, One Voice Now, Double Toothpicks, Don Singleton, Curt Dalaba, Pardon My English…
Even more bloggers: Stop the ACLU, Your Pastoral Coach, LeaderNotes, Mean Dean, Mike’s Noise, WordPress Politics, The Colossus of Rhodey, Crooks & Liars, Oblogatory Anecdotes, National Center Blog, Carol Platt Liebau, The Reaction, Republican Jen…
Update (6:25 p.m.): And the last two links for the night are ShrinkWrapped, and one of my favorite reads, Discriminations. Linking will resume tomorrow morning. I’ll approve comments and trackbacks caught in the spam filter tomorrow, too. Thanks for reading and linking to LBC, and I hope you’ve bookmarked some of these new-to-you blogs. 
Previous obituaries: Nipsey Russell, Johnnie Cochran, Ossie Davis, Johnny Carson, Shirley Chisholm, Rick James, Ronald Reagan and Superman.
Update II (10/26): After Instapundit linked last night, several bloggers tracked back to this post, and some of the trackbacks were caught in the spam filter. Sorry about that. I know the frustration. The following links will be the last I’ll include in this post, but you may continue to trackback and comment. Thanks!
Publius Pundit, Tel-Chai Nation, The Moderate Voice, Parableman, D.C. Thornton, Area417, My Right Mind, Texas Xtreme, PolitaKid, and brining up the rear, John, the blogger who designed the header graphic on my business blog.
