= 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 “mother 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. “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 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: “She stood up by sitting down. I'm only standing here because of her.” Speaking in 1992, Mrs. Parks said history too often maintains “that my feet were hurting and I didn’t 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. “At the time I was arrested I had no idea it would turn into this,” Mrs, Parks said 30 years later. “It 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’s landmark declara- tion that separate schools for blacks and whites were “inherently 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’s 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 “Rosa Parks: My Story” was « published in February 1992. In 1994 she brought out “Quiet Strength: The Faith, the Hope and the Heart of a Woman Who —_- Changed a Nation,” and in 1996 a collection of letters called “Dear Mrs. Parks: A Dialogue With -Today’s 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’s 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’ “Touched 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’ arrest. “Are you going to stand up?” the bus driver asked. “No,” Parks answered. “Well, by God, I’m going to have you arrested,” the driver said. “You may do that,” Parks re- sponded. Mrs. Parks’ later years were not without difficult moments. In 1994, Mrs. Parks’ 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’s 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 “From the M’ Voice Newspaper Archives’, .. 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 “has once again suffered the pains of exploitation.” A later suit against OutKast’s 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’ ‘A more ¢ attitude’ ] Older blacks, shé said “have 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 “We 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: “I 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’s Lester Holt he | _— narrates the story of the move- Ca rol in a East Cente r Tees} Directly Across From Ryan Steak House Suite #24 ipen Mon-Sat 10AM- 8PM" Telephone (252) 756-0044 ° WOOW (340AM Around here, businesses have plenty of power, In fact, we provide it to them, 24/7, And, because of our consistent performance, we've earned a solid reputation for reliability. In the business world and in the community. So you know you can depend on us to keep your business running like it should. Powerfully, KIX Touchstone Energy’ | ; tatives of North Carolina da B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) less leader of America’s 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’s 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, “Southern Horrors” in 1892 and “A Red Record” in 1895; “Some- 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 “A Red Record,” Wells wrote: “Not 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’s 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’s 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 “God 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’s 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’s 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 “not 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’s 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’s 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’s 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’s 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 : ! 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