Rosa Parks often chose to walk home from her job as a department store seamstress instead of grapple with the segregated bus system of Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. In fact, Montgomery was one of the most segregated cities in the country in first half of the 20th century. Virtually everything was segregated: buses, stairways, entrances, lunch counters, there was a constant sense of harassment. On the winter evening of December 1st, quiet, respectable, 41-year-old Rosa Parks had no intention of setting the American civil rights movement in motion. She boarded that bus simply because she was too tired to walk home and she refused to vacate her seat because she didn’t feel she should have to stand unjustly for the rest of her journey.

Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1913. When Rosa was two, her father abandoned the family (Or rather, perhaps set off by an inability to provide for or protect his family, he became part of the ‘black migration’ lured by the hope of economic prosperity in the industrial north.) Rosa’s mother Leona brought two-year-old Rosa and her brother Sylvester to her parents’ family farm in Montgomery in 1915. Rosa seldom saw her father, but was instead raised in the strong fold of a large extended family. Rosa’s mother was a schoolteacher and home-schooled Rosa until she was 11. Perhaps it was this early maternal guidance that led Rosa to a quiet but firm resolve to fight against injustice. In 1943 she become one of only two women activists in the NAACP and later also became involved in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Mrs. Parks served as secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP and later Advisor to the NAACP Youth Council. In addition, Rosa worked with the Montgomery Voters League, where she worked to help black citizens pass voter tests that had been designed to be virtually impossible to pass, thus rendering them ineligible to successfully register to vote.

Interestingly, Mrs. Parks had previous run-ins with Montgomery bus drivers. As an extended humiliation tool, black passengers were expected to pay their fare at the front of the bus and then get off and walk around to the rear door and board the bus. Often the bus would simply drive off after they’d paid their fare and leave them standing on the curb. Mrs. Parks refused to pay her fare at the front and was evicted from buses on several occasions.

In 1924, Rosa was sent to Montgomery to continue her education at the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls and for a short time, at Booker T. Washington High School. But as double-edged oppression would dictate, Rosa had to leave school in 1929 to care for her sick grandmother, and later her mother. Teen-age Rosa took on the challenging domestic responsibilities of cooking, cleaning, shopping and sewing. At the age of 20, Rosa married Raymond Parks, a barber by trade and also an early activist in his own right. It was in these years that she took up work as a seamstress and also began her work with the NAACP and the Montgomery Voter’s League.

On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks was tired after a long day of work and found a seat in the middle row of the bus. The middle section was not part of the ‘black section’ in the rear of the bus, or the ‘white section’ in the front. It was an area that black passengers were expected to vacate if a white passenger needed a seat. In fact, even if only one white passenger needed a seat, the entire middle row had to be vacated by the black passengers. A white man boarded the bus that evening and when he did not find a seat, he demanded that the middle section be cleared. Everyone in the row obliged, except Rosa Parks.

Rosa Parks sat quietly in her seat, perhaps looking out the window at the sunset, a changing Southern sky full of beautiful color. In her book Quiet Strength, (Zondervan Publishing House 1994) she says of that moment: “Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it. I kept thinking about my mother and grandparents, and how strong they were. I knew there was a possibility of being mistreated, but an opportunity was being given to me to do what I had asked of others.” The white bus driver became angry and threatened to call the police if she did not move to the back of the bus, and Parks simply replied “You may do that.” The driver became more enraged at this seeming power imbalance, and when the police arrived, he insisted on having Mrs. Parks arrested rather than letting her go with a warning. So this proper middle-aged woman was hauled off to jail. She was allowed to make one phone call, an NAACP lawyer who had her released on bail.

News of her arrest spread quickly and a boycott was set for December 5, the day of her trial. But a young Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and other members of the black community realized that they had a chance to make a strong statement against segregation. The Montgomery Improvement Association was formed and the boycott would remain in effect until the bus segregation laws were changed. The bus boycott lasted 382 days and deprived the bus companies of vast amounts of profit. 70% of their ridership was comprised of the African-American community. Mrs. Parks trial resulted in a $14 fine which her attorney wisely advised her not to pay, as this resulted in the case eventually being brought before the Supreme Court and in 1956, the court ruled the bus segregation laws illegal. Other cities followed suit and the modern American civil rights movement was born.

As is typically the case, this fight did not come without a personal cost. During the boycott, Mrs. Parks and her husband received numerous threats and harassing phone calls. Her husband Raymond had a nervous breakdown in 1957 and she and her husband then moved north to Detroit. Ironically, Mrs. Parks continued to work as a seamstress even though she was now a public figure and has since received thousands of honors, awards and requests for appearances. In 1965 she served on the staff of Congressman John Conyers of Detroit, further irony (to this writer) is that she was his receptionist and also served on a committee to provide housing for homeless people.

Raymond Parks died in 1977, but Rosa remained committed to her work, particularly in helping young people. In 1987 she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, a training school for Detroit teenagers. The program includes a program called Pathways to Freedom, a travel-based curriculum for children aged 11-18, which takes them across the country to vital scenes from the Underground Railroad and the civil rights movement.

Rosa Parks is deeply rooted in a belief in God, and it is really this message that she wishes to convey. In Quiet Strength, she says "I'd like for [readers] to know that I had a very spiritual background and that I believe in church and my faith and that has helped to give me the strength and courage to live as I did." That rare and sublime ability to translate deep faith into graceful action- which doesn't judge, but instead heals. She has the all too rare ability to walk to walk.

In 1994, 81-year old Parks was tragically assaulted in her home by a young, unemployed African American man who stole a meager $53 from her. And even to this incident she brings a quiet grace, "I pray for this young man and the conditions in our country that have made him this way. Despite the violence and crime in our society, we should not let fear overwhelm us. We must remain strong." Strong like Rosa.

Sources and Suggestions:
Rosa Parks: My Story by Rosa Parks, Jim Haskins contributor, Penguin Putnam (1992)
Quiet Strength by Rosa Parks, Jim Reed contributer, Zondervan Publishing House (1994)
www.blackhistory.com
www.theglassceiling.com/biographies

© Melt Magazine 2002