Rosa Parks - Rest Well

[Doot]

Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks Dead

POSTED: 9:42 pm EDT October 24, 2005
UPDATED: 6:50 am EDT October 25, 2005

DETROIT -- The personification of courage. That's how her attorney said he will remember civil rights icon Rosa Parks.

Parks passed away at her home in Detroit Monday night of natural causes. She was 92, and had been frail lately, making only limited public appearances.

Parks, a Montgomery, Ala., seamstress, earned the title of "mother of the civil rights movement" and was thrust into the spotlight, and the history books, when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955. She was arrested, thrown in jail and fined $14 -- but the act of defiance sparked a movement that would win blacks in this country equal rights under the law.

Parks would say three decades later she had no idea that her actions would lead to the 381-day Montgomery bus boycott, led by The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., then a little-known young Baptist minister. King later earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.

At a ceremony 45 years later, Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman said her refusal to give up her seat “was an act that changed this state and our nation forever."

It eventually led to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that forced the integration of the city transportation system.

U.S. Rep. John Conyers, of Michigan, remembers Parks as, "soft-spoken," but with "a determination that was quite fierce."

After the incident, Parks and her husband were forced to leave Alabama for Michigan because of threats, harassment and because they couldn't find work. She worked as an aide in Conyers' office from 1965 to 1988. Conyers said he would remember Parks as "an almost saint-like person."

The mayor of Montgomery, Ala., said he regrets that Parks didn't live to see the 50th anniversary of what many view as the start of the civil rights movement.

Dec. 1 will mark 50 years since the day Parks refused to give her bus seat.

Today, Montgomery has a Rosa Parks Museum and Library at Troy State University. A brand-new Civil Rights Memorial Center was dedicated Sunday.

Mayor Bobby Bright said events commemorating Park's act of civil disobedience are planned all throughout 2006 and the celebrations will be bigger than previous years.

Bright said Parks leaves a legacy of "quiet and peaceful rebellion against hatred."

Former President Bill Clinton said Parks was an inspiration to all who work for the day "we will be one America."

New York Congressman Charles Rangel said there's a little bit of Parks in all Americans who have the "courage to say enough is enough."

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Parks forced the world to face the "cause of equality, civil rights and justice."

[ScrumYummy]

Wow.

She was such an amazing woman...she will never be forgotten.

[Akanari]

My teacher met Rosa Parks in 1989...

We had a big dicussion about her today. May she rest satisfied about the world today.

[K-chan]

In fourth grade we had to write a list of historical figures we respected as heroes, I believe she was fourth or fifth on my list.

[Shino]

The affect that she had on the world today is fact. Who knew before this, that one woman, on one bus, could affect society in such away.

Rest in Peace Rosa, since you brought some sort of peace to so many.

[Kiyomi]

May her soul rest well. She did so much for America, and most people don't even realize what she, or the many others who fought for such causes, have done for us.

[Silver Adept]

Rosa Parks became an icon for something bigger than what she was thinking at the time. I hope we can honor her memory by remembering and striving for the things that she respresents.

[Yunni]

What a women, so strong and awesome. She was a muse that inspired such a wonderful thing - rest in peace.

[Blackmage]

They were talking about this on the morning, making fun of the guy who started the whole thing.

But yes, she did a great deed to the community, for all races