Standing Up For Freedom

Today I remember one of the most amazing women in history, Rosa Parks.

her smile melts my heart =)

I would give my left arm to sit and have coffee with her

Known as the "1st lady of Civil Rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement"

Changed the nation by refusing the bus driver's order to give up her seat for a white passenger

Her action sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott that started December 1, 1955.

Back then, African Americans could not just sit anywhere they wanted to on the bus. They had to sit towards the back. They would hop on the bus, pay the fare, get back off of the bus to walk around and re-enter through the back door. Sometimes the bus driver would drive off before they even got back onto the bus.

She was the secretary for the Montgomery, Alabama, chapter of the NAACP. She had a passion to change things that were unjust. She was tired of the treatment that she along with other African Americans received on a daily basis.

In her autobiography, she writes, "People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."

In a 1992 interview, she said "I did not want to be mistreated, I did not want to be deprived of a seat that I had paid for. It was just time... there was opportunity for me to take a stand to express the way I felt about being treated in that manner. I had not planned to get arrested. I had plenty to do without having to end up in jail. But when I had to face that decision, I didn't hesitate to do so because I felt that we had endured that too long. The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment, the more oppressive it became."

the boycott lasted for 381 days and marked one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation.

Rosa Parks was not the only person who had been arrested and jailed for refusing to give up her seat on public transportation. Irene Morgan, Sarah Keys and even 15 year old Claudette Colvin all had the courage to stand up for their freedom and fight to end racial hatred and discrimination.

Don't ever think that you can't make a difference, you have the power within to fight and speak up for the ones who do not have a voice.

Memories of our lives, our works and our deeds, will continue in others. Rosa Parks