Rosa Parks In My Life

Rosa Parks lived a life that impacted us all in one way or another. When she took her stand on a Montgomery bus I was too young to know about it. Later, as the Civil Rights movement gained strength and generated resistance I heard of her. As the great "race debate" raged across the country, and the conflicted 70s moved along, I saw Rosa Parks as a hero. However, it wasn't until I was in my twenties that I got some personal insight into the action she had taken.

Rosa Parks did not make a decision to enter the spotlight of racial conflict. She did not decide (at that point) to take a stand for racial awareness and equality. She made a personal decision.

One day, the insult was one too may. Who knows how her day had gone up to that point. She had lived her whole life under the strict segregation of the south. The rules were clear and familiar. It was a day like all of us have from time to time.

I can see myself in Rosa Park's position. Tired after a long day that had its share of frustrations. Grated, in that ongoing way, by the daily insults of prejudice. Sitting there and being told to move because a person with power and privilege wanted to take my seat. Just the last straw, and saying "no."

This is was a choice - perhaps not made with much forethought though the fantasy of such a response had likely crossed her mind. That one last action that puts you over the line. I have been there. I know the feeling very well. I refuse to be made "less than" one more time. I refuse to take this shit today.

For many of us, making these daily decisions happens today, and we step back into line. For others of us, challenging those rules becomes a way of life. For Rosa Parks, that decision, no matter how arrived at, became a life long commitment to equality.

But it started with that one act.

What would happen if each person took that one step? Stopping the "flow" of oppression and privilege today? Then again tomorrow?

I believe the world would change ... dramatically.

As we take the steps of resistance in our lives, most of us are not going to end up in the spotlight that a highly private person like Rosa Parks did. Some may desire that attention, but most of us would not choose such a path. Rosa Parks was remarkable because one of her greatest sacrifices - in my opinion - was not that she refused to move that day on the bus. What is remarkable was the personal cost she was willing to bear for the rest of her life.

I do not see as much bravery in the actions that day on the bus, but in the commitment she refused to back away from. She chose a course that she knew would change her life - dramatically. That is where I draw strength and inspiration. For I suspect that I share some things with Rosa Parks. I am a highly private, even introverted, person. I spent much of my life trying to not stand out if at all possible. I still hate crowds. But I can say that I came to feel that Rosa Parks, and others, showed me that the price was necessary. My guess is that for many it is that very human and personal decision that plays a role in how willing we are to stand up and stand out.

For me personally, that is her lasting legacy.