Remembering Rosa Parks

Nearly 50 years ago, Rosa Parks took a powerful stand against segregation by sitting down on a city bus in Montgomery, Ala. While it has been widely reported that Parks, a seamstress, refused to give up her seat to a white man because she was tired, Parks set the record straight in her 1992 autobiography: "No, the only tired I was, I was tired of giving in." Parks referred to Jim Crow laws in place since the post-Civil War Reconstruction that sanctioned segregated restaurants, buses and other public accommodations.

Parks' arrest sparked a 13-month busing boycott by blacks, nearly bankrupting the city service. The Montgomery Improvement Association, a group of more than 7,000 blacks assembled after Parks' arrest, filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Parks and three other women. A lower court declared segregated seating on public transportation to be unconstitutional and ordered the Montgomery buses to integrate. Among the first leaders of the MIA was the then little-known Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who marshalled the civil rights movement until his assassination in 1968.

Parks' defiance of the bus policy was a watershed moment for the civil rights movement. It sparked the mobilization of groups to register blacks to vote, to protest segregation and fight for civil and political rights.

Her death on Monday night in Detroit at the age of 92 is occasion to remember her profound courage to stand up to injustice and the role a single person can play in bringing about change. Those lesson were not lost on the countless activists who have risen since, fighting for reform and change through peaceful means.

While Parks has widespread acclaim as a hero and a catalyst, she paid a hefty personal price for taking a stand against discrimination. Parks, her husband Raymond and some family members lost their jobs due to her activism. They endured threats and harassment. Raymond Parks suffered a nervous breakdown. Eventually, the family relocated to Detroit where Park's younger brother resided.

In 1965, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., hired Parks as a staff assistant. She worked in various administrative jobs for 23 years, retiring in 1988 at age 75. In retirement, Parks gave speeches, including a rousing address at the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. in 1995, and established a foundation to teach leadership skills to underprivileged teenagers.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People awarded Parks its highest commendation in 1979.

In 1996, Parks received the the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Clinton. In 1999, she received the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian award.

Time magazine named her among the most influential people of the 20th century.

Perhaps the most fitting legacy to Parks would be for all Americans to assess the progress that has been made in the civil rights arena since her courageous decision not to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus in 1955, and to give careful consideration to the advances yet to be made.

As Parks herself said in 1988, "I am leaving this legacy to all of you . . . to bring peace, justice, equality, love and fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision, the people will perish and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die — the dream of freedom and peace."