“Rosa is well remembered not only for the lady who sat down on the bus but stood on the right side of justice for her entire life,” says Julian Bond. Born on
February 4, 1913, in Alabama, Rosa Parks’s message which began to develop in the forties, still sings in our hearts.
Dead in October of 2005, Rosa Parks was the first woman and the second African-American to lie in honor in the Capitol rotunda. Wasn’t she the lady who dared to stay sitting in the white section of a crowded southern bus when a white man entered and needed a seat? Didn’t the
driver with all the authority of a police officer demand that she rise? Wasn’t she then arrested and spend a short time in jail? Yes, indeed! After her release, she set about the work of managing a one day bus boycott.
Rosa more than stayed seated in defiance of authority, but she initiated the modern civil rights movement. A meek seamstress making a living by mending torn articles of clothing
for white persons, Rosa reached far beyond meekness to live a life of a modern day rebel. Where her people were despised and degraded, Rosa was there to right the wrongs against African Americans. Sometimes she stood alone in her efforts, but lack of support never diminished her energy in the battle for her people.
Rosa Parks, wife and mother, challenged in Detroit the Northern racial
inequalitypresent on behalf of Congesssman John Conyers and alongside Black Power advocates. Even in the midst of economic hardship and frequent death threats, Rosa and her husband Raymond continued exposing racial inequality in jobs, schools, public services, and the criminal justice system.
Theoharis brings to light a frequently forgotten woman whose whole life bears witness to the call of
Christ to respect every person, regardless of color or creed.
The author says Rosa is not an accidental actor; her whole life was one of service and courage to defend the often defenseless, people who just happened to be born black, but who battle to gain equality and full citizenship.
In 2014, the battle for
civil rights continues in the United States.
