Rosa Parks: Who was she?
Written by: Ishita Khambete
Throughout American history there have been countless significant movements and people who supported them. One of the most notable movements in modern-day America is the Black Lives Matter movement, and one person who is associated with the roots of this movement is Rosa Parks.
Rosa Parks was a Civil Rights activist and by the time she refused to give up her seat in
1955, she was an organizer for the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, along with Martin Luther King Jr. Being a leader doesn’t come without hardships, and Parks faced many of them. One major difficulty she faced was people trying to discredit her work with the bus boycotts and discourage her work in the Civil Rights movement. People would say that she took the seat in the white people section of the bus and refused to move because she was tired, not because she was taking a stand against injustices. Parks herself said that this was incorrect and that she wasn’t tired because of work, but because of the prevalent racism in America. While this is what she is best known for, Parks also worked with multiple social justice organizations and was elected as the secretary to the Montogomery chapter of the NAACP.
Throughout her life, Rosa Parks received many accolades and awards for her work, such as the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal and the Medal of Freedom, which she received from President Bill Clinton in 1996. She was also named as one of the 100 most influential people in the 20th century by Time Magazine. This goes to show just how influential Rosa Parks was and how her work reached many people and was able to make substantial change in America.
In modern day America, racism is still a prevalent issue, but we have to keep in mind that the work of 20th century activists such as Rosa Parks hasn’t gone to waste. Good things came out of the work done by activists like Parks, and if we continue the momentum, and even increase it, then we can accomplish what needs to be done. We have to take inspiration from Rosa Parks because she was a strong, defiant woman who took action against racism and was a significant part of the Civil Rights movement.
One of the biggest lessons we can learn from the Civil Rights movement is that fighting
for what’s right and being persistent about it is what will get us places. Treating movements like Black Lives Matter like a trend won’t help anything since trends only tend to last for a short period of time, and a lot of time, hard work, and perseverance will be needed to make any kind of meaningful change.
Sources: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/rosa-parks
https://www.rosaparks.org/biography/