AUDIO TREASURY of Rosa Parks history & interviews, incl JOHN CONYERS

Nothing Without Hope

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Sun Oct-30-05 01:25 AM
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AUDIO TREASURY of Rosa Parks history & interviews, incl JOHN CONYERS

And now something to lift our spirits, calm us, and remind us of the important things:

I heard a wonderful NPR program which included a wonderful interview of John Conyers who told of Rosa Parks working for two decades as an aide in his office - at his invitation and with his profound appreciation. When I got home, I went searching and eventually not only found the page with a link to the audio file of this interview, but also a treasure of links to images and audio files from Mrs. Parks' history, the incidents and documents associated with her arrest, and many interviews with and about her through the years. Of course I have to share it with you.

Here's the main "treasure trove" page with the compilation of links - I can't give you direct audio links, you go there and click on what you want. It's a FEAST!!!! Be sure to scroll all the way down the page and look at everything, including the related program links.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4973548

The unforgettable, moving Oct 25 interview with Rep. Conyers is linked to on this page under the name "Recalling the Life Of Rosa Parks"; the audio link is on this page:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4973330
The caption accompanying this audio link to the Conyers interview is
"News & Notes with Ed Gordon, October 25, 2005 · Ed Gordon talks with Claiborne Carson, professor of history and director of the King Institute at Stanford University, and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), about the life and legacy of civil rights icon Rosa Parks.")

The main "treasure trove" page, at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4973548, should be savored and worked through. I'll post small versions of the images below - but the real treasure is the voices of the people who knew Mrs. Parks and spoke of her character, her life, her contributions, her profound effect on so many lives and also interviews with the great lady herself. These interviews are not all recent, but stretch back through time. For example, there are the following "full-length interviews" with Mrs. Parks:

Just months after the 1955 bus boycott, Rosa Parks recounts the incident with Sydney Rogers. (Pacifica Radio Archives)
In a 2003 NPR birthday tribute, Parks recounts the day she refused to give up her seat.
In a 1992 interview with NPR's Lynn Neary, Parks discusses the national response that followed her protest.

There is an image of her 1955 Montgomery AL arrest record, now a historic document kept carefully preserved in the National Archives (a much larger version with a full view of the page is also available):

There is the wonderful image of Mrs. Parks in the FRONT of the bus in 1956, after the US Supreme Court ruled the city's bus segregation rules illegal (again, a larger version is available):

She was so very beautiful, as some people are who glow from within. Rep. Conyers tells us in his interview how very much she was this kind of a person. I'm not religious except in a sort of Buddhisty way, but I am telling you the lady was full of grace. You can see it clearly in her face and in her actions throughout the ages of her life:

The "treasure trove" audio links page also has a nice article summarizing Mrs. Parks' experiences and history. Here is an excerpt:

(snip)

When the police officer boarded the bus, Parks, who was 42, had one question for him: "I said, 'Why do you push us around?' He said, 'I do not know, but the law is the law and you are under arrest.' "

Parks' grass roots activism had prepared her for this moment. She had attended a session the summer before at the Highlander Folk Center, the educational center for workers' rights and racial equality in Tennessee. Several years earlier she had been thrown off a bus by the same bus driver.

There were other black women in Montgomery who were arrested in 1955 for violating the segregated busing policy. But this time, the black community fought back in force. The NAACP had been looking for a test case to challenge segregated busing and Parks agreed to let the group take her case.

Parks lost her job and had trouble finding work in Alabama after her public stance. She and her husband moved to Detroit. For many years she worked as an aide to Congressman John Conyers, and she remained a committed activist. In the 1980s, she worked in the anti-apartheid movement and also opened a career counseling center for black youth in Detroit.

(snip)

Rosa Parks was and will always be an example to us all: how to remain strong without being shrill or brittle, how to choose our fights and refuse to fold, how to network with others to increase the strength of all, and most of all, how to live with grace. Her victories are ours, and we must never lose the strength to keep hope alive and stand firm for justice and truth. She is the very best kind of hero, the kind that can lift our hearts, remind us of the possibilities if we only keep fighting, remind us of our own strength. Granny Haddock understood this when she said, "It is the loss of faith in our personal power that drives the woes of the world."

AUDIO TREASURY of Rosa Parks history & interviews, incl JOHN CONYERS

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The Long History of a Bus Ride

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