Rosa Parks: 1913-2005

Rosa Parks, who in 1955 sat down on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama – an act of courage that resonates with us today – is dead.  Here is the report from Der Spiegel. 

Die Symbolfigur der US-Bürgerrechtsbewegung ist tot: Rosa Lee Parks starb gestern im Alter von 92 Jahren in Detroit. Parks wurde zur Pionierin der Bewegung für die Gleichberechtigung der Schwarzen, weil sie sich 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, weigerte, ihren Platz im Bus für einen Weißen zur räumen.

Detroit – Damals herrschte in Bussen und Restaurants der Südstaaten noch eine strikte Rassentrennung. Die mit dem symbolischen Akt des zivilen Ungehorsams einsetzende Protestbewegung gegen die Diskriminierung der Schwarzen beeinflusste entscheidend den Lauf der amerikanischen Geschichte, und Parks wurde zur "Mutter der Bürgerrechtsbewegung".

US. Representative John Conyers (Democrat), in whose office Rosa Parks worked for many years, had these words of tribute:

"Everybody wanted to explain Rosa Parks and wanted to teach Rosa Parks, but Rosa Parks wasn’t very interested in that," he said. "She wanted them to understand the government and to understand their rights and the Constitution that people are still trying to perfect today."

Nice post on this as well by Marian.

It is interesting to contrast Rosa Parks’  life to that of Condoleezza Rice.  Parks’ act of courage paved the way for an African-American Secretary of State (and possible presidential candidate). And yet Rice represents an administration, and a political philosophy, that has turned its back on the struggle for racial equality. Eugene Robinson discusses this in his probing op/ed piece in today’s Washington Post. 

One of the things she somehow missed was that in Titusville and other black middle-class enclaves, a guiding principle was that as you climbed, you were obliged to reach back and bring others along. Rice has been a foreign policy heavyweight for nearly two decades; she spent four years in the White House as the president’s national security adviser. In the interview, she mentioned just one black professional she has brought with her from the National Security Council to State.

[…]When Rice was growing up, her father stood guard at the entrance of her neighborhood with a rifle to keep the Klan’s nightriders away. But that was outside the bubble. Inside the bubble, Rice was sitting at the piano in pretty dresses to play Bach fugues. It sounds like a wonderful childhood, but one that left her able to see the impact that race has in America — able to examine it and analyze it — but not to feel it.

Recent polls indicate only 2% of African-Americans approve of the Bush administration.

UPDATE: Adrienne Woltersdorf in taz (German) and DailyKos Diarist JRE (English) remind us that Rosa Park’s act of defiance must be seen in the context of the civil rights movement, where she was an active participant.