Rosa Parks' struggle resonates with new generation

[applegrove]

Rosa Parks' struggle resonates with new generation


JIM COYLE - Toronto Star

" Two winters ago, I visited the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., with a bunch of 14-year-old hockey players. The most celebrated exhibits were the limousine in which JFK was assassinated in 1963 and the bus Rosa Parks was riding in 1955 when she refused to give up her seat to a white man.

Being a baby boomer, I assumed the limo, with its role in my generation's iconic moment, would be what grabbed the kids. I was wrong. It was that refurbished Cleveland Ave. bus from Montgomery, Ala.

Maybe the idea of sanctioned racism was more amazing to them than assassination. Maybe they were less interested in the death of a hero than the birth of one. Maybe there is nothing so appealing to the young as justice and an underdog triumphant.

Whatever it was, our group sat inside that bus for 20 minutes or more, often in silence. A guide pointed out the seat Parks — who died this week at age 92 — refused to yield. One by one, we sat there, too, the hair prickling on the back of necks, and tried — as best whites could — to imagine the moment.

..... SNIP"


http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1130363408250&call_page=TS_GTA&call_pageid=968350130169&call_pagepath=GTA/News&pubid=968163964505&DPL=IvsNDS%2f7ChAX&tacodalogin=yes

[applegrove]

1. This refutes those who say "she was an activist". She was an activist

and she tried to avoid "bad" situations and she pretty much tried to avoid sitting in the wrong place. But Bus Driver "changed the rules on her".