He was 10 years her senior and a passionate civil rights activist. In her first autobiography, "Rosa Parks: My Story," she recalled what had impressed her the most about Raymond: "He didn't seem to have that meek attitude -- what we called an 'Uncle Tom' attitude -- toward white people. Contrary to the public conception of a quiet, domestic woman who was just too tired from a hard day's work to get up from her seat, Parks was actually a strong civil rights advocate who worked as the secretary in the Montgomery office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
In his biography of Parks, Douglas Brinkley wrote, "While the NAACP executives made dinner speeches and attended national conferences, [Parks] balanced the ledgers, kept the books, and recorded every report of racial discrimination that crossed her desk.
She also did field research, traveling from towns like Union Springs to cities like Selma to interview African Americans with legal complaints, including some who had witnessed the murders of blacks by whites in rural areas. In "Quiet Strength: The Faith, the Hope, and the Heart of a Woman Who Changed a Nation," a later autobiography, Parks said she wanted to be known as "a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.
In , the year of the famous bus incident near the intersection of Montgomery and Moulton streets, Parks was 42 years old. She denies that she remained seated because she was tired. Like other blacks who rode the bus, Parks was forced to abide by the law that reserved the first 10 seats for whites and mandated that blacks give up their own seats if necessary to accommodate white passengers.
Black riders also had to enter the bus by the back door; on one occasion in , Parks was ejected from the bus for failing to do so.
On Dec. As there were no seats available in the white section, the driver told Parks and the others in her row to move. Initially, no one complied, but the other passengers vacated their seats when the driver insisted they not make trouble for themselves.
Parks, however, remained seated even after the driver threatened to call the police to force her to move. They arrested Parks and took her to jail. As Parks explained in her autobiography, she did not intend to change history that December evening. The photograph taken of Parks during her fingerprinting eventually found its way into history books. She was granted one telephone call, and she used it to contact E. Nixon was properly outraged, but he also sensed that in Parks his community might have the perfect individual to serve as a symbol of racial injustice.
Nixon called a liberal white lawyer, Clifford Durr, who agreed to represent Parks. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke at the service. Capitol Rotunda. There she lay in honor, and was viewed by more than 50, people, until the memorial service at St. After the memorial service in Washington, D. Some drivers made black passengers board through the front door to pay their fare, then reenter through the back door to find a seat. If they were unlucky, the bus would take off before they had a chance to get back on.
One day in , Parks boarded a bus to register to vote. But the back of the bus was standing room only. Instead of stepping off to go to the back door after paying her fare in front, Parks walked down the aisle. The driver, James Blake, demanded that she disembark and re-board at the rear of the bus.
Parks got off and waited for the next bus. She swore to herself never to ride with that driver again. But on a winter evening 12 years later, after a long day at work, Parks got on a bus to go home, forgetting to check who was behind the wheel. She was by then an active member of the National Assn. When she got off work on that December evening, she was preoccupied with final arrangements for an upcoming NAACP workshop. She paid her fare before she noticed that the driver was Blake.
At the next stop, the white section filled up and one white passenger was left standing. They all balked, at first. Then, after Blake ordered them up again, three complied. Parks refused to budge. The police were summoned, and she was taken away in a squad car. She was not the first black to be arrested for defying the segregation rules; at least two other women that year had been jailed for the same offense.
The NAACP wanted to challenge the law and had been on the lookout for someone who would make a good test case, but both of the first two women had something unsavory in their backgrounds that made them unsuitable plaintiffs.
Nixon, civil rights lawyer Clifford Durr and his activist wife, Virginia. Nixon asked if she would be willing to be the plaintiff in a test case against the bus segregation law. Although her husband feared that lending her name to the cause would get her killed, she said yes. She had plenty of opportunity for forethought, but Parks said she never intended to get arrested. Nor did she refuse to give up her seat because she was tired, as many in her legion of admirers told the story.
She was not any more weary that day than usual. On Dec. Civil rights activists and a group of black women laid plans to launch a bus boycott. King, the year-old minister of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and a newcomer to Montgomery, was chosen to run the boycott. He and the other black leaders were full of trepidation about the planned action. But for blacks, it was a hopeful time: Just the year before, in , the U.
Supreme Court had overturned school segregation in Brown vs. Board of Education. The Montgomery boycott succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of its planners: What was planned as a one-day action stretched to a year and two weeks. It also sorely tested the ingenuity and tenacity of black Montgomery residents, few of whom owned cars. Those who did own them were pressed into service to power an elaborate, ad-hoc system of carpooling and private cabs; Parks, who had lost her seamstress job, served as a dispatcher.
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