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DIGNITY
She needed help standing. Over forty years ago she was
arrested for refusing to stand and give up her seat on a segregated bus in
Montgomery, AL; on this day, she gladly stood. Leaning on the Speaker of the
House of Representatives’ arm, Rosa Parks received the Congressional Gold
Medal, Congress’ highest honor on June 15, 1999.
President Bill Clinton was only a child of nine when Parks
was arrested on December 1, 1955. Even as a child, he knew what was happening
to her was wrong. In his remarks at the ceremony to give Parks the Gold Medal,
Clinton said, “[Me and my friends] couldn’t figure out anything we could do
since we couldn’t even vote. So we began to sit on the back of the bus when we
got on.” (Blacks were allowed to ride segregated buses, but had to sit in the
back.)
Today, most Americans recognize Parks as an icon of the
Civil Rights Movement, but her defiance didn’t come from any political
ambitions. She wasn’t trying to make a statement, she just wanted to sit down
after a long day working as a seamstress. She said, “I didn’t get on that bus
to get arrested; I got on that bus to go home.” That’s what made it so
significant. She wasn’t trying to make the headlines, she wasn’t fighting for
the spotlight, she was fighting for her dignity.
Her case led to the Supreme Court to declare Montgomery’s
segregation law unconstitutional. Representative Julia Carson of Indiana called
Parks, “the mother of the civil rights movement.” The Minority Leader Richard
Gephardt said to Parks, “You had courage, and you sat down for all of America
and all of America’s freedom.”
How could one woman’s defiance on a cold winter’s day in
Alabama have such an impact? She struck a chord with people everywhere who have
struggled to maintain their dignity in the face of tyrants. A person with that
kind of courage deserves to sit with Presidents, not on the back of the bus.
—AP, 6-16-99 Illustration by Jim L. Wilson
Isaiah 7:4 “Take care, and be calm, have no fear and do not
be fainthearted …”
For more information on Rosa Parks, go to http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0141301201/fm082-20
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