Her simple act of defiance in 1955 sparked a revolution in America that made this a stronger country and a better place to live.
For that, we all owe Rosa Parks a debt of gratitude.
Her refusal to let a white man take her seat on the Montgomery, Ala., bus she was riding home from work lent power and purpose to the civil rights movement and to the voice of Martin Luther King Jr., then a young Montgomery preacher.
Parks died Monday at 92, but we will see reminders of her quiet determination whenever someone says no to injustice.
As the Rev. Jesse Jackson said: “She sat down in order that we might stand up.”
For many Americans, it’s hard to imagine a time when blacks had to sit at the back of the bus, drink from separate water fountains, attend separate schools, patronize separate laundromats.
It’s hard to imagine because of the changes brought about by heroic people like Parks.
She never intended on sparking a movement when she stepped on that bus, but as secretary for the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, she knew she could no longer stay silent.
“People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true,” Parks would later say. “I was not tired physically. … No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”
We still don’t live in a world free of bias and discrimination, but we’re closer today thanks to Rosa Parks.
