rose-coloured glasses

Today the casket of Rosa Parks lies in the centre of the US Capitol Rotunda, she is the first woman to be so honoured. Lest we forget, almost exactly fifty years ago, on Dec. 1, 1955, she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery (Alabama) bus to a White man. She was arrested. Martin Luther King Jr helped launch a strike against the city bus system that lasted over a year. The strike ended when the segregation rule requiring Blacks to give up their seats to whites was declared unconstitutional.

In 1994, Parks published a book called Quiet Strength.

Parks' action is usually framed as "the power of one little act". But actually, Parks had been dissenting for years, was a secretary for the NAACP, had many times stirred things up by trying to register to vote, and regularly argued with bus drivers. She was by no means the first woman to stand up to segregation law. Parks' story is beautiful because she was unrelentless and because, with the engagement of thousands of other people, she won a small mercy that has led to many other small mercies. Relentlessness and the engagement of thousands are still necessary for change...