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KHUE-BUI/AP
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Detroit Free Press Photo Essay on Rosa Parks
Rosa
Parks Portal
Rosa
and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development
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'Rosa Parks, the "mother of the civil
rights movement" was one of the most important citizens
of the 20th century. Mrs. Parks was a seamstress in Montgomery,
Alabama when, in December of 1955, she refused to give up her
seat on a city bus to a white passenger. The bus driver had
her arrested. She was tried and convicted of violating a local
ordinance.
Her act sparked a citywide boycott of the
bus system by blacks that lasted more than a year. The boycott
raised an unknown clergyman named Martin Luther King, Jr., to
national prominence and resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court decision
outlawing segregation on city buses. Over the next four decades,
she helped make her fellow Americans aware of the history of
the civil rights struggle. This pioneer in the struggle for
racial equality was the recipient of innumerable honors, including
the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize and the Presidential
Medal of Freedom. Her example remains an inspiration to freedom-loving
people everywhere.'
Source: Academy
of Achievement
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Rosa
Parks was quite an American.
She
did what she felt she had to do, believing in her soul she was equal
to any other citizen in American and would need to demand respect
if she was to achieve her goal.
Once
she had found that her rights were going to be eventually respected
and honored, she went on with her life in a country that honors her
today for her journey.
Looking
at the courage of Rosa Parks, I believe it's sad that leaders like
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpen don't understand the value of a Rosa
Parks' kind of courage for themselves.
Her
courage was one that simply demanded she be allowed to be part of
the culture and then later, once accomplishing her goal and not through
anger but through cooperation, contributed to it rather than wishing
for its demise.
Her
elegance, courage, and grace would add her to the pages of America's
rich history of diversity, her name always to be remembered with other
heroes of her time, from JFK to Martin Luther King, all driven by
the quest for equal opportunity for all American citizens of all colors.
That's
why on the other side of the table I view Jesse Jackson as a "paycheck
Jesse," seeming to always be out there hustling for money whenever
he smells an opportunity through the conflict of others to promote
himself to greater riches.
I
remember seeing Jesse decades ago, standing by himself in the Memphis
Airport, while I was there on a business trip. It was in an age when
we were both very young, and at a time I was impressed with his mission
for the Rosa Parks of the world.
But
somewhere on the way he lost his purpose along with my respect. Rosa
Parks is the real American hero while Jesse seems to have traded in
his potential for a path of self-gratification and personal reward,
evolving in his old age to an everyday opportunist, America filled
to the brim with them from all walks of life.
While
history will probably still remember him, he will not be in or near
the same category of personal courage as Rosa Parks commands.
That's
because Rosa Parks never chased greatest. She obviously understood
you simply had to follow your beliefs in hopes greatness would find
you.
And
it did.
Copyright
- Freedom is Knowledge 2005
