Personal: Letting Light Shine Pt. 1

So, I just got out of a candlelight vigil for Rosa Parks. I learned some things; some I did want to know, and some I didn't.

I learned that there are a few different versions of why Rosa Parks did what she did. Some say that she was a "test case," set up by the NAACP to prepare for the Montgomery bus boycott, which was at the time still in the planning stages. Some say she was inspired, divinely, ethically, or morally, to do, or not do, what she did. I had heard the former story from a distinguished history professor here at Cornell while taking 20th C. Black Women's History, and I heard it again tonight. The speaker tonight, though, claimed that this was a racist point of view, and espoused the latter. While I have admittedly done no research into the topic, I was interested to hear the possible contradiction. In my own musings (again, uninformed musings), I like to think that the event was neither planned, nor unplanned. Parks had been a NAACP secretary, and, through her friendship with Ella Baker, most likely kept abreast of issues and events being planned in the area. Parks, besides being aware politically, was also aware socially, emotionally, and spiritually. Words, especially not from me, cannot express Parks' feelings or thoughts who, as a Black woman of 42 years in Alabama, had seen and felt the awesome power of racism, in so many of its manifestations, can posess. Yet, Parks' spiritual awareness imbued her with a power of her own, all her own, granted by her Creator. It was using this power that manifested a resistance to the power of hatred. Similarly, it was within this context--of being politically aware, of being emotionally "tired," and of being spiritually "rested"--that Parks, with or without forethought (she claims there was none), or perhaps without her own forethought, but with that of a much greater Power, chose to resist. Resistance, it must be understood, though, was nothing new to Parks. During the service, I learned that Parks so often chose to walk instead of riding on a degrading bus system, to thirst instead of drinking at a fountain symbolizing an order designed oppress all that took part. In short, I learned that to me, versions of why Parks chose not to forfeit her seat are wholely unimportant. Previous to this evening, I was of the opinion that Parks' being a "test case" showed not only the high level of organization that the Civil Rights Movement required, but the sheer amount of energy that citizens, already respected for being productive, active contributors to the Civil Rights movement in their own right, were courageous enough to give, or to risk, as the reality shows it to be.

What I wasn't so excited to learn, well that I will address later, as I don't have enough time or brainspace at the moment....

Cheers,

lanovella