October 27th, 2005

We have lost one of our nation’s faces of heroism. Thank you, Rosa Parks, for showing us that traditions can be ripped and re-stitched into a better society for all. We need more people like you, people of integrity, invested in their community and dedicated enough to plan for change. May you rest in peace.

A reflection from John Scalzi, on the beauty of having to explain segregation to his child. Slacktivist dispels the myth of one woman, working alone, and reminds us that “Revolutions can be planned.”

Meanwhile, there’s nothing to give you the feel of the times like primary sources. From the Sovereignty Commission Records, you can see both extremes:
1) From the Southern Student Organizing Committee Newsletter of January 1965, Jeff Shero writes, “The revolution began with beautiful simplicity. Mrs. Rosa Parks, an elderly woman, refused to give her bus seat to a white man and was arrested. This small affirmation of human dignity sparked the Montgomery bus boycott that led to the first notable victory for non-violent direct action in the South.”

2) Honorable John R. Rarick includes John S. Perilloux’s The Untold Story of Martin Luther King in the May 1968 Congressional Record,”And what of Mrs. Rosa Parks, the woman who precipitated the bus boycott? Shortly before the incident on the bus, Mrs. Parks had attended the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee. To fully understand the nature and purpose of this school we must go back to the early 1930’s, a time when the Communist Party had great dreams and expectations for using the Negro in the Party’s plans for overthrowing the government of the United States.”

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