Rosa Parks - Sitting Down to Stand Up!

Rosa Parks

Today, I’d like to spend this session talking about an extraordinary woman. This is a woman whom has been given the title “ The first lady of civil rights”, by none other than the US congress! Now, who am I talking about? Well, as the title suggests, this PBD session will be about Rosa Parks and the significance of her actions.

Now, who exactly is Rosa Parks? Perhaps Dr. Martin Luther King JR might be a more familiar name. Without a doubt, Parks and King are two people whom will always be inexplicitly linked together. Would you happen to have heard of one of King’s legendary speeches?

Rosa Parks "First Lady of Civil Rights"

Martin Luther King JR was the man who had made the phrase “I have a dream” so memorable and so significant to so many people. On the other hand, few people have heard of or understand the significance behind the little, silent woman named Rosa Parks. However, this is hardly surprising news. Rosa Parks herself just wasn’t the kind of person who needed – or even particularly wanted – any kind of recognition for her deeds. But before I go into that, I’d first like to share with you a little more about this amazing woman.

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American who became such an important figure in history not because she had the courage to stand up and rouse an audience with moving speeches and words. Rather, she gained the respect she did simply because she sat down and wouldn’t stand up. Does something like that seem possible to you?

As the title suggests: Sitting down to Stand up!

Well, the incident that I am referring to took place on December the 1st in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama. Bus driver James F. Blake had given her an order that is discriminatory at best, and it wasn’t the first time that he’d made such a request of her. Once, in 1943, Parks had boarded that exact same bus driven by the same man, and he had told her to pay the fare, disembark and re-enter from the rear door. Parks complied then, but before she could board the bus again, James F. Blake drove off, leaving her in the rain. Since then, Rosa Parks had sworn to herself to never board his bus again, and had gotten onto that bus in 1955 by sheer absentmindedness.

Bus No 2857, now a museum exhibit at the Henry Form Museum

Thus, on that fateful day, she had taken her seat in the first row of back seats reserved for blacks in the ‘coloured section’, not realizing that James F. Blake was the man driving the bus. Soon, it came to Blake’s attention that the bus was quickly filling up with white passengers, with two or three of them standing. Blake then moved back the ‘coloured’ section sign behind Parks and demanded that she and three other black people give up their seats. Three of them complied but, as Rosa Parks would later recount, “when that white driver stepped back towards us, when he waved his hand and ordered us up and out of our seats I felt a determination cover my body like a quilt on a winter night”. In other words, Rosa Parks did move – but only to slide over to the window seat. Blake then turned on her and threatened to call the police, and Rosa Parks responded in a quiet, firm tone that he might do whatever he wished.

Taken from her autobiography: “People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

Barack Obama on the same row that Rosa Parks had been sitting in. She had been in the opposite seat

It takes a lot of courage to stand up for something with so many things against you. Rosa Parks didn’t just have to consider her own wellbeing (although the consequences she faced alone were just as harsh), she also had to factor in the wellbeing of her family and those that she loved. Her husband would be implicated, and in a family where health was none for the better, losing either of their jobs would have been disastrous. And yet, Rosa Parks gained that quiet strength required to start a revolution, in the shoes of a private citizen whom was just “tired of giving in”. She did what she did because she was able to see the bigger scheme of things, and this alone gave a woman whom had always preferred to stay in the background the courage to, albeit reluctantly, take the spotlight and inspire a revolutionary change. Her selfless, courageous and noble act teaches us something – sometimes, sacrifices and measures must be taken for the greater good, for the bigger picture.

And then we think about the fact that Rosa Parks never claimed any of the credit for herself – she didn’t feel the need to stand up and speak passionately to a crowd of listeners to get her point across. “There comes a time that people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression,” says Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., before he praises Park’s bravery and hugs her on stage. Rosa Parks is silent, and yet her presence alone is enough.

Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.

Just as King wouldn’t have made as much as an impact on that crowded bus as compared to a modest and gentle woman like Rosa Parks, Rosa Parks just wasn’t meant to stand before a crowd and speak thrilling and moving words like Martin Luther King. Everybody has a place in this world – we should never feel dissatisfied or unhappy if we can’t do something as well as somebody else can. I think that it’s important to know that if we keep doing what we love and what we are best suited for, we can always make the same sort of impact as somebody else would in a different field of work. Keeping true to our own beliefs and abilities is not weakness.

Why did I decide to write this article on Rosa Parks? Well, what really struck me as impressive about her is how she could be remembered as “timid and shy” and also be remembered as a woman possessing “the courage of a lion”. This ‘quiet strength’ (I was pretty awed to find out that this was just the phrase she chose to represent her autobiography) is just as impressive as a moving speech or revelation to me. I’d just like to take this chance to appeal to you, dear reader – don’t ever feel the need to force yourself to do something you really don’t want to do. When the time comes, I believe that we will always be capable of making a difference, just by being whom we are.

Thank you Rosa Parks!

I guess that this PBD is just a little different from the last, isn’t it? Well, I hope that you have enjoyed it nonetheless. Please don’t hesitate to email me anything you want to share at OrdinarySGKid@hotmail.com or mention me at @OrdinarySGKid J I hope to hear from you soon!

Thank you for your time!

Credits: First Photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rosaparks.jpg, Second Photo: layoutsparks.com, Third Photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rosa_Parks_Bus.jpg, Fourth Photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Barack_Obama_in_the_Rosa_Parks_bus.jpg, Fifth Photo: rosaparksfacts.com, Sixth Photo: steq8dc.edu.glogster.com