Rosa Parks, a Civil Rights Saint

With the death of Rosa Parks it reminds us there was a time when doing the right thing was more than striking a pose at a contrived Photo-Op. It was more than mouthing platitudes. It could mean taking a chance by risking a beating or getting arrested, or worse, because somebody had to do it.

In 1955, in Alabama, Parks' courageous and very public move to refuse to give up her seat on a bus to a white man -- as dictated by Jim Crow laws -- was quite dangerous and absolutely the right thing. That Parks, a 42-year-old black seamstress, was not murdered like Emmett Till had been in Mississippi that same year was lucky/remarkable. That she went on to live to the ripe old age of 92 was pure karma.

Shaula Evans at tsuredzuregusa ??? opines fittingly with bite about opportunistic/insincere reactions from GOP spinners to Parks' death:

"Today Bush and other prominent Republicans will exploit the occasion of Parks' death to promote their ongoing campaign to hijack, whitewash, and rewrite history; they will co-opt the language of the civil rights movement in order to be seen as racially sensitive by white soccer moms; all the while that they attack and undermine every inch of progress accomplished by Rosa Parks and her generation of civil rights activists."

Evans also offers some good links to read more about the quiet woman who launched a revolution, Rosa Parks. Click here to read the post.