mercoledì, ottobre 26, 2005
Rosa Louise Parks
Even to many people who were around in those days, the era of racial segregation seems as remote as the Civil War. You might say that back in the Fifties, American society lived at a different point in evolutionary time.
Social historians point to an individual act of defiance on December 1, 1955, as the beginning of the end of that time.
What happened: In Montgomery, Alabama, a black seamstress named Rosa Parks was heading home after a long day at work. She boarded a bus and found a vacant seat. Trouble was, if there weren’t enough seats on the bus for Caucasians, African Americans were supposed to give up their seats; back then that was the law in Montgomery, Alabama. As it happened, the bus soon filled up and Rosa was expected to give up her seat.
Fat chance. The lady had had enough. Rosa Parks refused to budge. In short order, Mrs. Parks was arrested, fingerprinted and fined for violating a city ordinance.
That incident in Montgomery turned out to be a catalyst for change. Mrs. Parks’s arrest resulted in a black boycott of the city’s bus line—a boycott that ended 381 days later when the bus line caved in, on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation in transportation was unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, the bus boycott triggered a wave of protest and freedom marches that captured national attention. The civil rights movement gathered momentum, and profound changes followed; Rosa Parks had rocked the country to its foundations. Perhaps more important, she challenged America to re-examine its values and institutions—and the country emerged that much stronger for it.
