It’s the evening of December 1. Our friend waits at the bus stop, longing to take a load off after a hard day of work. The bus hisses to a halt and the driver cranks open the door.
Our friend climbs aboard and walks toward the back. She eases into a seat and her joints relax against the cotton and vinyl. The bus starts up again. Our friend gazes out through her clouded window at the streets of Montgomery and soon gets lost in thought.
The bus stops again and again, packing passengers into an ever filling space. A white woman boards, takes one look around, and complains to the driver that all the seats at the front of the bus are taken. The driver glances up into his rearview mirror and growls to our friend and those beside her that they need to vacate their row of seats so that the white woman can sit down.
Our friend is Rosa Parks, and Rosa refuses to give up her seat. She gets arrested.
Rosa Parks to the Officer: “Why do you push us around?”
Officer: “I don’t know but the law is the law and you’re under arrest.”
_____
Rosa’s brave act of self-determination was sixty-nine years ago today. Her arrest led to the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott in which Black riders refused to travel these segregated busses anymore and which brought the economy of Montgomery Alabama to its knees.
Rosa later said, “I did not get on the bus to get arrested; I got on the bus to go home.” Who do you think are the Rosas of right now? Where are they showing up and what are they doing? How do they inspire YOU? And what might YOU be doing in your own large or small way to right the wrongs in our community today?
xo
🤗 Here’s a hug for all the civil rights icons who bent the arc of history a little more toward justice, and to all in the here and now trying to do the same.
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Thank you for lifting those upon whose shoulders we stand so we all can MOVE FORWARD..!
Moving prose! Yet disappointing in understanding Rosa Parks as the apotheosis of the American individualistic ideology. She is a hero but not on her own A local civil rights organization scoped the situation, selected and trained candidates before the iconic incident and then created an alternative transportation system in its wake so that people could function without submitting to the demeaning transportation system. Rosa Parks was a civic entrepreneur, taking a novel step, with an organizational support structure assisting and guiding the movement. Recognition of this context takes nothing away from her feat; rather it enhances our understanding of the process that makes social change and justice possible.
Henry
Neighbors for Environmental and
Social Justice
HenryEtzkowitz.org