BY REMAINING SEATED, ROSA PARKS STOOD UP FOR ALL

Saturday, November 5, 2005

Rosa Parks' random display of pride and defiance almost 50 years ago sparked what would become the civil-rights movement in America.

On Dec. 1, 1955, the black seamstress, then 42, refused to give up her seat to a white man on a city bus in Montgomery, Ala.

She was arrested, convicted of disorderly conduct, fined $14 and ordered to serve time in jail.

Parks' quiet show of civil disobedience triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system by blacks that was organized by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., then a little-known, 26-year-old Baptist minister.

The boycott led to a court ruling that desegregated public transportation in Montgomery.

Parks' actions would become the catalyst for a long national struggle that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which, among other things, desegregated public buildings and accommodations nationwide.

Parks died Oct. 24 at age 92. Her death brought deserved recognition and honors -- lying in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, a huge and dignified funeral Wednesday in Detroit and the lowering of flags to half-staff on all U.S. government buildings.

All of this shows that Parks' actions and dedication to justice remain unifying forces for our nation.

Her place in history will always be extraordinary. By refusing to stand up and move from her bus seat (as was required by the laws of Montgomery and many parts of the South that allowed segregation and discrimination), Parks stood up for herself and others, then and now.

Parks' quiet, polite and dignified refusal to acquiesce to a white man forced the nation to focus on some of its worst qualities -- racism and the absence of equal rights for all citizens.

Because of Parks, more people, including Southerners, began seeing discrimination for what it really was -- and still is.

By sitting down in that bus, Parks stood up not only for blacks but for all Americans.

And five decades after she fought discrimination and defied the laws that permitted it, the nation is a better, fairer place.

But it is hardly devoid of intolerance and prejudice.

Hopefully, Rosa Parks' death will cause a new generation of Americans to acknowledge and do something to correct the injustice, disrespect and inequity with which many people still live every day.