October 28, 2005
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Making a Stand
Fifty years ago, on Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, an Alabama seamstress whose soft-spoken refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man triggered the Montgomery bus boycott, the first mass action in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s.
As you might have heard, she passed away on Tuesday, Oct 25 at 92 of natural causes.
Her show of defiance was an act of personal courage that moved millions, including a young 26-year old Baptist minister named Martin Luther King.
”I had no idea when I refused to give up my seat on that Montgomery bus that my small action would help put an end to the segregation laws in the South,” she wrote in her autobiography, ”Rosa Parks: My Story” (1992). ”People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that wasn’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 42.
No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”
When I learned about Ms. Parks in grammar school, the event seemed so far away in history that I’d always assumed she was 19 or 20 when it happened. But she was 42.
I think it’s a great testament that it’s never too late in your life to make a difference and how much one person can affect others. Rest in peace Ms. Parks.
Comments (17)
RIP Ms. Parks
RIP, Rosa Parks. You’re right. It’s never too late.
meanwhile, props to you for last night’s performance on “without a trace.”
Awesome job in Without a Trace, really enjoyed the episode.
God Bless her… She’s an inspiration to all. And about about yesterday’s performance on Without a Trace. Good stuff… man you sure can look tired… and gay… hmmm… interesting… keep up the good work, you should have been the brother, i could see you with a ton of rage, and korean!
how inspirational.. i too, never realized she was 42 and assumed she was in her rebellious teenage/20′s yrs..
haha that is true i never pictured her as a 42 yr old
Amen.
I grew up in Birmingham, AL in the 80′s and 90′s, and that wasn’t really too far from the 50′s. Yes, what she did was awesome and provoked the beginning of a movement, but Alabama, is really not much different. The same racist stuff I went through in the 80′s, and 90′s, my brother had to go through in 2000. The same stupid shit. We both left that hell hole.
In AL, there are only 2 colors, black and white. When you are anything else, then you do not exist. There were a bunch of black students picking on my brother a Chinese kid in a 99% white school. One guy made the comment, “You can’t do this to no white girl, you’ll go to jail for that”. And so what he basically said was, it’s ok to do this to someone with yellow skin.
Blake
RIP Rosa!
And saw Without A Trace last night. good job!
watched the show yesterday…
question: does it ever make you made that they can’t cast enough “chinese/korean” people for the part.
for example yesterday show was about a korean family… but i don’t even think any of them were…
Amen
It’s kinda sad how people remember just about her role of not giving up her bus seat. Wish more people knew that despite her quiet nature, she was really active with the NAACP way before her bus scene. But her legacy lives on…big picture OR small picture.
She’s a legacy.
wow I too didn’t know how old she was. Rest in peace. What a lady
Amen~ indeed
You were WO N D E R F U L thursday night! It alwayz makes me happy to see you on TV!! Ooh & in that suit, more please!!!!!!!!!!!
Your #1 fan, Sarah
hey man!
It was great meeting/chillin with you last week. Let me know when you swing by boston again.
take it easy
haha, you make 42 sound so old. :p
(I noticed the Korean family on Without a Trace spoke Cantonese?