It is difficult for those who did not live through it to truly understand the racism that permeated the United States in the 1950s.
Segregation still is apparent within our society, but then, particularly in the Deep South, it had the force of law and most of the instruments of state and local government to enforce a strict separation of Blacks from whites. Too often Blacks faced billy clubs, fire hoses, police dogs, and even a bullet in the night when they sought to practice their basic rights as Americans.
Rosa Parks was the catalyst that moved the struggle for civil rights to a new level when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., Dec. 1, 1955. Some thought that she was simply tired that day and wanted to sit.
But as she would explain in her 1992 autobiography My Story, 'No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.'
She was arrested for violating the segregation laws and fined $10, plus $4 for court costs. Her arrest sparked a 380-day boycott of the city's bus system, and a court challenge to the segregation laws that the Supreme Court ultimately struck down as unconstitutional.
It brought a young organizer of the boycott, 26-year-old Rev Martin Luther King Jr., to national attention, and it forever changed the face of the civil-rights struggle in the United States.
'Rosa Parks sat down in order that we might stand up,' Rev. Jesse Jackson told The New York Times. 'Paradoxically, her imprisonment opened the doors for our long journey to freedom.'
Mrs. Parks and her husband faced economic retaliation from the white establishment and in 1957 moved to Detroit in order to make a living. She died there at her home, at the age of 92.
'Rosa Parks' acts of courageous defiance clearly demonstrates how one person can awaken the conscience of a nation,' said H. Alexander Robinson, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition. 'It is this indomitable spirit that will continue to motivate those who strive for equal rights for all and fairness for all families.'
'With one simple yet extraordinary action, Rosa Parks made our nation a better and fairer place for all Americans,' said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. 'By insisting on the dignity and respect every human being deserves, Parks boldly moved the country toward fairness.'
Eric Stern, executive director of National Stonewall Democrats, said, 'The quiet life of Rosa Parks left a resounding testimony to the American ideal. When equal rights are guaranteed by a government, but denied by those who govern, it is the responsibility of the citizen to stand and demand justice. When Rosa Parks affirmed her rights as a citizen, she transformed the civil-rights movement and American law.'
'Rosa Parks' legacy will live on for generations,' said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 'providing inspiration for all those striving to extinguish the inequalities that continue to plague us, from racial and economic injustices to discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people.'
