Single act can lead to monumental changes

Rosa Parks, who died Monday, was tired after working all day and didn’t want to have to give up her bus seat to a white man. “I felt that I had the right to be treated as any other passenger,” she explained later. It was the simplicity of her story that ignited the civil rights movement and that still resonates 50 years later.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

12 Comments

  1. J M Walker
    Posted October 26, 2005 at 6:22 am | Permalink

    A True American Idol. You go, girl.

  2. R.D.Liebst
    Posted October 26, 2005 at 6:29 am | Permalink

    Anything I might say here would be redundant. Read what I wrote in the opinion page today’s eagle.

  3. Galahad
    Posted October 26, 2005 at 8:54 am | Permalink

    Isn’t it interesting how 50 years later she’s a great American hero.

    At the time, she was a rabble rousing Communist! Someone who didn’t respect the law. Someone who gave aid and comfort to the enemies of America.

    Just like today, the people opposing the illegal and immoral war in Iraq are Al Qaeda sympathizers.

    Yup, what a difference a couple of decades make . . .

  4. Damoon
    Posted October 26, 2005 at 9:17 am | Permalink

    RD, great editorial! It’s good to remind ourselves that the smallest act can sometimes have the greatest impact.

  5. Jed
    Posted October 26, 2005 at 12:06 pm | Permalink

    RD,I was going to write something about her passing until I read your letter. There’s nothing I could say that would improve on your comments. She was a true heroine, without trying to be one. Someone who changed a nation by not standing up!

  6. TRACY
    Posted October 26, 2005 at 2:16 pm | Permalink

    John Brown got his neck stretched for the original civil rights movement.I’m surprised that the state doesn’t have much to say about Captain Brown.His history here in Kansas is all but forgotten.

  7. Jed
    Posted October 27, 2005 at 4:23 am | Permalink

    Tracy,Apparently, you haven’t been to the statehouse and seen the Curry mural there that features him. Anyway, he was a fanatic who tried to foment a slave revolt that would have gotten huge numbers of them killed without much hope of success, and would have damaged the abolitionist movement. Many of us would prefer to just acknowledge his existence and move on.

  8. TRACY
    Posted October 27, 2005 at 6:40 am | Permalink

    Jed I’m very familiar with JB’s exploits, and the famous mural.John was a son of a Baptist preacher who taught that slavery was against God’s laws, and he took that to heart. I just thought it was appropriate on this posting.I believe he had a vision of the civil war coming, and in effect he helped start it, right here in “Bleeding Kansas”.

  9. Lyn
    Posted October 27, 2005 at 11:02 am | Permalink

    The Man Behind Rosa Parks – Homer Plessy – http://blogginoutloud.blogspot.com/2005/10/setting-stage-for-rosa-parks.html

    Homer set the stage for the modern civil rights movement 60 years prior, and probably should be recognized along with Ms Parks. lgp

  10. Jed
    Posted October 27, 2005 at 12:10 pm | Permalink

    Lyn,Thanks for that link! Yes, Plessy was a real hero of the movement, which has had so many unnamed heros that also need to be remembered. Thanks for reminding us of that fact, and of him!

  11. Lyn
    Posted November 30, 2005 at 4:21 pm | Permalink

    Jed,Thanks for that comment. After I wrote it I thought that it came across as if we shouldn’t affirm Rosa Parks and ALL the unrecognized heros that faced what we’ll never face. So, yes, so many people to applaud. lgp

  12. Alan
    Posted January 9, 2006 at 1:22 am | Permalink

    yeah. That’s an american story.