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= Page 10 The Minority Voice Newspaper Oct. 21 - Nev 4, 2005
_ Rosa Parks, matriarch of civil
_ Catalyst of U.S. drive for racial eq
DETROIT - Rosa Parks, whose
refusal to give up her bus seat to a
white man sparked the modern civil
rights movement, died Monday
evening. She was92.
Mrs. Parks died at her home during
the evening of natural causes, with
close friends by her side, said
Gregory Reed, an attorney who
represented her for the past 15
years. .
Mrs. Parks was 42 when she
committed an act of defiance in 1955
that was to change the course of
American history and earn her the
title omother of the civil rights
movement. ? .
At that time, Jim Crow laws in place
since the post-Civil War Recon-
struction required separation of the
races in buses, restaurants and
public accommodations throughout
the South, while legally sanctioned
racial discrimination kept blacks out
of many jobs and neighborhoods in
the North.
The Montgomery, Ala., seamstress,
an active member of the local
chapter of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored
People, was riding on a city bus
Dec. 1, 1955, when a white man
demanded her seat.
Fined $14 .
Mrs. Parks refused, despite rules
requiring blacks to yield their seats
to whites. Two black Montgomery
women had been arrested earlier
that year on. the same charge, but
Mrs. Parks was jailed. She also was
fined $14, .
U.S. Rep. John Conyers, in whose
office Parks worked for more than 20
years, remembered the civil rights
leader Monday night as someone
Whose impact on the world was
immeasurable, but who never saw
herself that way.
oEverybody wanted to explain Rosa
Parks and wanted to teach Rosa
Parks, but Rosa Parks wasn Tt very
interested in that, ? he said. oShe
wanted to them to understand the
government and to understand their
rights and the Constitution that
people are still trying to perfect
today. ?
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick
said he felt a personal tie to the civil
rights icon: oShe stood up by
sitting down. I'm only standing here
because of her. ?
Speaking in 1992, Mrs. Parks said
history too often maintains othat my
feet were hurting and I didn Tt know
why I refused to stand up when
they told me. But the real reason of
_ minister, the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr., who later earned the Nobel
Peace Prize for his work.
oAt the time I was arrested I had no
idea it would turn into this, ? Mrs,
Parks said 30 years later. oIt was just
a day like any other day. The only
thing that made it significant was
that the masses of the people joined
in. ?
The Montgomery bus boycott,
which came one year after the
Supreme Court Ts landmark declara-
tion that separate schools for blacks
and whites were oinherently
unequal, ? marked the start of the
modern civil rights movement.
The movement culminated in the
1964 federal Civil Rights Act, which
banned racial discrimination in
public accommodations.
After taking her public stand for
civil rights, Mrs. Parks had trouble
finding work in Alabama. Amid
threats and harassment, she and her
husband Raymond moved to
Detroit in 1957. She worked as an
aide in the Detroit office of Demo-
cratic U.S. Rep. John Conyers from
1965 until retiring in 1988. Raymond
Parks died in 1977.
Mrs. Parks became a revered figure
in Detroit, where a street and middle
school were named for her and a
papier-mache likeness of her was
featured in the city Ts Thanksgiving
Day Parade.
Mrs. Parks said upon retiring from
her job with Conyers that she
wanted to devote more time to the
Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute
for Self Development. The institute,
incorporated in 1987, is devoted to
developing leadership among
initiating them into the struggle
for civil rights. oe
oRosa Parks: My Story ? was
« published in February 1992. In
1994 she brought out oQuiet
Strength: The Faith, the Hope and
the Heart of a Woman Who "_-
Changed a Nation, ? and in 1996 a
collection of letters called oDear
Mrs. Parks: A Dialogue With
-Today Ts Youth. ?
She was among the civil rights
leaders who addressed the
Million Man March in October
1995.
In 1996, she received the Presi.
dential Medal of Freedom, :
awarded to civilians making
outstanding contributions to
American life. In 1999, she was
awarded the Congressional Gold
Medal, the nation Ts highest
civilian honor.
Mrs. Parks received dozens of other
awards, ranging from induction into
the Alabama Academy of Honor to
an NAACP Image Award for her
1999 appearance on CBS T oTouched
by an Angel. ? °
The fateful conversation
The Rosa Parks Library and
Museum opened in November 2000
in Montgomery. The museum
features a 1955-era bus and a video
that recreates the conversation that -
preceded Parks T arrest.
oAre you going to stand up? ? the
bus driver asked.
oNo, ? Parks answered.
oWell, by God, I Tm going to have
you arrested, ? the driver said.
oYou may do that, ? Parks re-
sponded.
Mrs. Parks T later years were not
without difficult moments.
In 1994, Mrs. Parks T home was
invaded by a 28-year-old man who
beat her and took $53. She was
treated at a hospital and released.
The man, Joseph Skipper, pleaded
guilty, blaming the crime on his drug
problem.
The Parks Institute struggled
financially since its inception. The
charity Ts principal activity " the
annual Pathways to Freedom bus
tour taking students to the sites of
key events in the civil rights
movement " routinely cost more
money than the institute could
raise.
Mrs. Parks lost a 1999 lawsuit that
sought to prevent the hip-hop duo
OutKast from using her name as the
title of a Grammy-nominated song.
In 2000, she threatened legal action
against an Oklahoma man who
rights, dies at 92 _
lity lived in Detro
try to give them an inspiration, an
oFrom the M T Voice Newspaper Archives T, .. Shown above are
members of the Gatlin Family and other family members. Shown
above is Mothers Hattie Carndol, Carrie Jones, Evelyn Lassistin,
Minnie Gatlin, Ellis Brown, Sally Streeter, Carrie Gatlin, Darwin
photo by Jim Rouse
my not standing up was | felt that I
had a right to be treated as any
other passenger. We had endured
that kind of treatment for too long. ?
Her arrest triggered a 381 -day
boycott of the bus system orga-
nized by a then little-known Baptist
(Teapot) Vines, and Olga Myers.
name rights to www.rosaparks.com.
After losing the OutKast lawsuit,
Reed, her attorney, said Mrs. Parks
ohas once again suffered the pains
of exploitation. ? A later suit against
OutKast Ts record company was
settled out of court. ©
She was born Rosa Louise ©
McCauley on Feb. 4, 1913, iti ~
Tuskegee; Ala. Family illness
interrupted her high school educa- || ===
tion, but after she married Raymond}: gp oe
Parks in 1932, he encouraged her Hamburgers
and she earned a diploma in 1934. | "= yestaak..
He also inspired her to become ; "
involved in the NAACP.
Looking back in 1988, Mrs. Parks
said she worried that black young
people took legal equality for ¢ . en a
granted: ~ 7 soothe Beat T
A more ¢ attitude T ]
Older blacks, shé said ohave tried to
shield young people from what we Aci nals
have suffered. And in so doing, we a ee
seem to have a more complacent ae
attitude. " . q
oWe must double and redouble our
efforts to try to say to our. youth, to
incentive and the will to study our
heritage and to know what it means
to be black in America today. ?
At a celebration in her honor that _
same year, she said: oI am leaving
this legacy to all of you ... to bring
ace. iustice, equality, love and
When Rosa Parks refused to
give up her seat on a bus in
Montgomery, Ala., her action low? és 4
sparked the modern civil rights bCateq ~?"? - Ny Secs
movement. NBC Ts Lester Holt he | _ "
narrates the story of the move- Ca rol in a East Cente r
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; tatives
of North Carolina
da B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931)
less leader of America Ts anti-lynching crusade
Born of slave parents in
1862, just months before the
Emancipation Proclamation,
journalist and publisher Ida B.
Wells-Barnett rose to the top
of her profession to become
14th Pastorial Anniversar
_ known as the tireless leader of
America Ts anti-lynching crusade.
Wells-Barnett was born in Holly
Springs, Miss., and moved to
Memphis at age 16 to teach
school and attend Fisk University.
Her experiences with racial
injustice in Tennessee led her to
become a journalist. In 1889, she
bought an interest in the Memphis
Free Speech and Headlight and
became its editor. The lynching of
three Memphis grocers, one of
whom was a friend, catapulted
her into action ahd changed the
course of her life. Using the
power of her press, she attacked
the evils of lynching and urged
African Americans to leave the
city and to boycott its businesses.
While in New York City on
business, a mob destroyed her
offices and threatened her life.
Wells-Barnett moved to New
York City, where she became a-
writer for The New York Age and
began investigating lynchings.
Wells-Barnett published two
famous pamphlets on lynching,
oSouthern Horrors ? in 1892 and
oA Red Record ? in 1895; oSome-
body must show that the Afro-
American race is more sinned
against than sinning, and it seems
to have fallen upon me to do so, ?
y 9
. .) : ..
Page 11 The Minority Voice Newspaper Oct. 21 - Nov 4, 2005
Wells-Barnett explained in an
understated tone. In oA Red
Record, ? Wells wrote: oNot all
nor nearly all of the murders done
by white men during the past
thirty years in the South have
come to light, but the statistics as
gathered and preserved by white
men, and which have not been
f Bishp
questioned, show that during
these years more than ten thou-
sand Negroes have been killed in
cold blood... ? In 1895, she
married attorney Ferdinand L.
Barnett, publisher of The Chicago
Conservator, and settled in
Illinois. In Chicago, Wells-
Barnett wrote for the Conservator
and remained active in civil .
rights and women Ts groups. She
died in Chicago on March 25,
1931. In 1990, the U.S. Postal
Service issued a commemorative
stamp in her honor,
Ella Grime
* well.
Enduring Life Chal-
lenges With A
Disability
A book signing for Patricia Maye
Brown was held on October 1,
2005 at McAlister Ts Deli. This was
the first release of her book,
Enduring Life Challenges with a
Disability by the Grace of God,
about her life growing up with a
disability due to being stricken
with meningitis and polio at the
age of 11 months old. When you
see her you will see a physical
disability because she wear braces
on her legs and walks on crutches
all of her life. Yes, she is disabled
in the natural, but not in the spirit
because of her capabilities. Life
sometimes is'a challenge in itself
and having to face life with.a
physical disability is another "
challenge. Her book will tell you
how she endured it.
She first gives honor to our higher
- power oGod Almighty. ? The
scripture she has stood on after
coming to the knowledge of God
is Philippians 4; 13; I can do all
things through Christ which
strengthened me. It is not her
strength but. God Ts strength.
Growing up she always had a zeal
for the Lord. After surrendering
her life to God on December 31,
1985 she then began to realize all
of God Ts goodness towards her
and-her purpose in life. Everyday
have not been roses for her. She
has had bumps and bruises in life
but she has persevered.
- It had already been revealed to
her, but a Prophet of God spoke it
to her about two years ago that
her sickness was onot unto death,
but for the Glory of God. ? It was
confirmed in her spirit that her
condition was for a purpose. Her
~~ purpose was to-be'a servant-of 4
God, and minister to God Ts people
in many ways for the Glory of
God. She is a minister of God not
just behind the pulpit. Her
ministry goes far beyond as it
reaches out to help in many ways.
Whereas it looks as if she needs
_ the help, she is to help others as
The testimony she would like to
spread abroad is to encourage
God Ts people not to allow a
disability or adversity of life
control them, they must be in
control by going on and living life
to the fullest in spite of. Life is a
gift Tom God; He made you the
way you are. God has chosen you
for the task even if you do have a
disability. |
It Ts all for the ooh oe
To get a copy o you
contact her at (252) 757-3654 Pipe
may order it through Barnes &.Nobles,
Amazon or www.authorhouse.com,
a Pepe 12. Be Minority Voice Newspaper Oct, 21 Nov 4, 2005
it Ts time
for Spring
egistration
Pre-Registration
_ begins November 14
Classes begin January 5, 2006
Spring Schedules
now available on campus: or
on-line at www.pittcc.edu
om : ! Call 252.493.7245
or visit our website at
HE)
www. pittcc.edu Conmnaty Cate
. g people for success |
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