Rosa Parks: The Faithful Freedom Fighter
When the assembly of angels met on Monday, October 24, 2005, God instructed them to save a space for a sacred saint, Mrs. Rosa Parks, who by her dignity and defiance transformed a nation and confirmed a notion that ordinary people can have an extraordinary effect on the world.
The global legacy of Mrs. Parks, not unlike that of Jesus, the Christ, can be segmented into two eras: Before Parks, and After Parks.
December 1, 1955 is indelibly inscribed in the annals of time as seminal and sacred date. Some 90 years after the passage of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, legally emancipating her ancestors, and 59 years after a politically compromised Civil War Reconstruction failed by a radically right-wing Supreme Court decision in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, Dignity Day in December of 1955 was one of destiny.
Perhaps the most inspirational incident which led to Mrs. Parks' defiance occurred three months prior on August 28, 1955, when Emmet Till's dead and disfigured body was publicly displayed for the world to see. Mrs. Parks said "When I thought about Emmet Till, I could not go the back of the bus." The confluence of history and umbrage made her sit.
Yet, amidst the array of compromises offered, it was Mrs. Parks' determination that would not allow her to capitulate. Offers arose to provide her with a free pass to ride the bus; to fire the bus driver; and to allow desegregation of Montgomery, AL buses only. It was as though she had a God-given Dignity Deficit Disorder.
Mrs. Parks' act led immediately to a 381-day bus boycott, drum-majored by a twenty-six year old Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., and ultimately to a nine-year march culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1964: the prize which their collective eyes were so fervently focused. The frame changed. Mrs. Parks tested the law of states' rights and won!
Mrs. Parks' righteous indignation literally changed the world.
Long before the internet, the Mother of the American Civil Rights Movement cast her global net over the long walk to freedom of Nelson Mandela and Black South Africans; the solidarity of Lech Walensa and Polish workers against a totalitarian government; and the temerity of Chinese students who, against tanks in Tiananmen Square, dared to challenge unjust policy of the their government.
Mrs. Parks was an activist and freedom fighter, as president of the Montgomery, AL NAACP. Yet, she united us all with peace and perseverance.
God bless her soul, and may the light of liberation forever shine. therefore: 1. Teach your loved ones that ordinary people can do extraordinary things 2. Join a civil rights organization 3. Commit yourself to action beyond analysis 4. Deliver sermon on "The Conviction of Rosa and Esther" 5. Pray for Mrs. Parks' action-oriented spirit to live within us all
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