Sydeny Carton:A Tragic Hero Essay, Research Paper

When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man forty- five

years ago on December 1, 1955, she was tired and weary from a long day of work. At

least that’s how the event has been retold countless times and recorded in our history

books. There’s a misconception here that does not do justice to the woman whose act

of courage began turning the wheels of the civil rights movement on that fateful day.

Rosa Parks was physically tired, but no more than you or I after a long

day’s work. In fact, under other circumstances, she would have probably have given up

her seat willingly to a child or elderly person. This time Parks was tired of the treatment

she and other African Americans received every day of their lives, what with the racism,

segregation, and Jim Crow laws of the time. “Our mistreatment was just not right, and I

was tired of it, ” writes Parks in her recent book, Quiet Strength, ( Zondervan Publishing

House, 1994). “I kept thinking about my mother and my grandparents, and how strong

they were. I knew there was a possibility of being mistreated, but an opportunity was

being given to me to do what I had asked of others.”

The rest of Parks’ story is American history . . . her arrest and trial, a

381-day Montgomery bus boycott, and, finally, the Supreme Court’s ruling in November

1956 that segregation on public transportation was unconstitutional.

Parks’ personal history has been lost in the retelling. Prior to her arrest,

Mrs. Parks had a firm and quiet strength to change things that were unjust. She served

as secretary of the NAACP and later Adviser to the NAACP Youth Council, and tried to

register to vote on several occasions when it was still nearly impossible to do so. She

had run-ins with bus drivers and was evicted from buses. Parks recalls the humiliation: “I

didn’t want to pay my fare and then go around to the back door, because many times,

even if you did that, you might not get on the bus at all. They’d probably shut the

door, drive off, and leave you standing there.”

Forty-five years later, despite some tremendous gains, Parks feels, “we still

have a long way to go in improving the race relations in this country. “Rosa Parks-who

celebrates her 83rd birthday this month, spends most of her year in Detroit, but winters

in Los Angeles. Her day is filled with reading mail, ” from students, politicians, and just

regular people”, preparing meals, going to church, and visiting people in hospitals. She is

still active in fighting racial injustices, now standing up for what she believes in and

sharing her message with others. She and other members of the Rosa and Raymond

Parks Institute for Self-Development have a special program called Pathways to Freedom,

for young people age 11-18. Children in the program travel across the country tracing

the Underground Railroad, visiting the scenes of critical events in the civil rights

movement and learning aspects of America’s history.

Says Elaine Steele, Parks’ close friend and co-founder of the Rosa and

Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, “Mrs. Parks is a role model that these

students look up to, and they feel very honored and privileged to be in her company.

And she’s very gracious to accompany the students to these activities.”

February, Black History Month, seems a relevant time to evaluate youth and

their sense of history. Parks thinks bigger and broader. “We don’t have enough young

people who are concerned and who are exposed to the civil rights movement, and I

would like to see more exposure and get their interest,” she says, pausing to reflect, “but

I think it should just be history, period, and not thinking in terms of only Black History

Month. “Parks is quiet, soft-spoken, and diplomatic. She is firm in her belief that enough

people will have the courage and dedication to make this country better than it is. “And

this young man that’s taking over the NAACP, Kweisi Mfume, I admire him a great

deal,” she adds. About Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Black Muslims, she says, “Well,

I don’t know him personally, but I think it was great that he spearheaded the Million

Man March.”

Parks has met many renowned leaders and traveled throughout the world,

receiving honors and awards for her efforts toward racial harmony. She is appreciative

and honored by them, but exhibits little emotion over whom she has met or what she has

done. Her response to being called “the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement” is modest.

“If people think of me in that way, I just accept the honor and appreciate it,” she

says. In Quiet Strength, however , Parks is careful to explain that she did not change

things alone. “Four and a half decades later I am still uncomfortable with the credit given

to me for

starting the bus boycott. I would like [people] to know I was not the only person

involved. I was just one of many who fought for freedom.”

In August 1994, Parks was attacked in her home by a young man who

wanted money from her. Of the event, she writes, “I pray for this young man and the

conditions in our country that have made him this way. Despite the violence and crime in

our society, we should not let fear overwhelm us. We must remain strong.”

Parks’ belief in God and her religious convictions are at the core of

everything she does. It is the overriding theme in her book and the message she hopes

to impart: “I’d like for [readers] to know that I had a very spiritual background and that

I believe in church and my faith and that has helped to give me the strength, courage,

and the will-power to live as I did.”

Rosa Parks is a great inspiration to America and she changed the history

books. Rosa Parks is an African American women who in 1955 did not give up her seat

on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama to a Caucasian man, not only standing up for

women’s rights but also for the rights of African Americans. These were her

words. “Ain’t giving up my seat, its here and I’m gonna stay. I paid my money like the

rest.

You can tell that to the cop. And I’m stayin’ in my seat til this bus gets to my

stop.” This simple yet profound act triggered “The Montgomery Bus Boycott” which

lasted 381 days. This black history civil rights activist whose refusal to give up her

seat on a public bus to a white man began the 1955 Montgomery , Alabama boycott,

which changed the course of the history books for both black and white people in the

United States of America.

Work Cited

www.cnn.com/US/9906/15/rosa.parks.medal/

www.galanet.com/servlet/BioRC/hits…uise+Lee+Parks+OR+Rosa+

Lee+McCauley+Parks

Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott by: Teresa Celsi

Quick Strength by: Rosa Parks w/ Gregory J. Reed

Rosa Parks: The Movement Organizes by:Andrew Young

Great African AMericans in Civil Rights by:Pat Rediger

A Picture Book of Rosa Parks by: David A. Adler

www.spub.ksu.edu/issues/v100/n70/cam-parks-edwards.html

www.wmich.edu/politcs/rlmp.html

www.rosaparks.com/bio