Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks passed away from natural causes on the eve of Monday, October 25, 2005. She was 92.
This news hit me quietly as I watched the evening news. I immediately signed onto the internet to review and re-familiarize myself with Ms. Parks and her actions that marked the rise of the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.
As I read of her "defiance" and "out right refusal" to relinquish her seat on a bus that fateful day in Montgomery, Alabama , over fifty years ago, in 1955, I recognized the courage it called for her to do so. This tired department store worker's feet were hurting and her body was tired. She refused, along with two other blacks to move from their seats so that ONE white man could sit down. History states, that she had had problems with the same bus driver before, so when she refused to give up her seat , he stated "I'll have you arrested". Ms. Parks response was, "You may go on and so." Thus, her actions were an integral part of the Civil Rights Movement and the pioneering of activism of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
However, as our forefathers marched towards equality and boycotted against inequality, and staged sit-ins, those of us that have come afterwards appear not to appreciate and understand the sacrifices these courageous individuals have wrought.
Their actions of sitting down allowed us to stand up. It sparked a powerful movement for Blacks to Unify as a people for a better, more equal standard of being, self, and life. It gave us national leaders and spokesperson like the late great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and others that have lead our people to "freedom".
Thus, as the years progress, I see our generation and the generations to come so far removed from what Rosa Parks, Dr. King, and others in the struggle stood for, that it pains me. We are a society of gluttony, sloth, greed, and envy. It is give me more, buy me more, show me MORE! It is the ME society. No one is appreciative of the blessings that WE have. They don't understand that were it not for their actions of defiance, WE may not be as far as we are now.
There may not have been a Colonel Colin Powell, a Rev. Jesse Jackson, and GOD forbid if there had been no Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King! The horror of what I see is a generation of people whom feel it is their RIGHT to act and behave in a certain manner is not what the Civil Rights Movement was about. The Civil Rights Movement was about empowering of a race of people whom had been oppressed for hundreds of years.
I am thankful to GOD for Ms. Parks because of HIS will and her actions, it has afforded the African American race as a whole-- not as a part.
It is my hope, that we as a race will once again learn to Unite against the many injustices that plague our people.
SassyScribe
This news hit me quietly as I watched the evening news. I immediately signed onto the internet to review and re-familiarize myself with Ms. Parks and her actions that marked the rise of the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.
As I read of her "defiance" and "out right refusal" to relinquish her seat on a bus that fateful day in Montgomery, Alabama , over fifty years ago, in 1955, I recognized the courage it called for her to do so. This tired department store worker's feet were hurting and her body was tired. She refused, along with two other blacks to move from their seats so that ONE white man could sit down. History states, that she had had problems with the same bus driver before, so when she refused to give up her seat , he stated "I'll have you arrested". Ms. Parks response was, "You may go on and so." Thus, her actions were an integral part of the Civil Rights Movement and the pioneering of activism of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
However, as our forefathers marched towards equality and boycotted against inequality, and staged sit-ins, those of us that have come afterwards appear not to appreciate and understand the sacrifices these courageous individuals have wrought.
Their actions of sitting down allowed us to stand up. It sparked a powerful movement for Blacks to Unify as a people for a better, more equal standard of being, self, and life. It gave us national leaders and spokesperson like the late great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and others that have lead our people to "freedom".
Thus, as the years progress, I see our generation and the generations to come so far removed from what Rosa Parks, Dr. King, and others in the struggle stood for, that it pains me. We are a society of gluttony, sloth, greed, and envy. It is give me more, buy me more, show me MORE! It is the ME society. No one is appreciative of the blessings that WE have. They don't understand that were it not for their actions of defiance, WE may not be as far as we are now.
There may not have been a Colonel Colin Powell, a Rev. Jesse Jackson, and GOD forbid if there had been no Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King! The horror of what I see is a generation of people whom feel it is their RIGHT to act and behave in a certain manner is not what the Civil Rights Movement was about. The Civil Rights Movement was about empowering of a race of people whom had been oppressed for hundreds of years.
I am thankful to GOD for Ms. Parks because of HIS will and her actions, it has afforded the African American race as a whole-- not as a part.
It is my hope, that we as a race will once again learn to Unite against the many injustices that plague our people.
SassyScribe
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