Rosa Parks: Not the Same Old Story
Rosa Parks died a few weeks ago, and her death was covered in all the major newspapers. Parks became an historical figure when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus and was arrested.
Beyond that, I bet most Americans could recite many details: she was poor, she was tired, she dared to sit in the white area of the bus. A provocative book I read a few years ago, though, noted that most of these details are either embroideries or untrue. But that doesn’t mean Rosa Parks was a sham, it simply means she was different from the iconic legend that has grown around her.
The book is Should We Burn Babar? by Herbert R. Kohl. In the chapter on Rosa Parks, Kohl notes that she was not poor, but of middle income. She was an active member of the civil rights movement. She, and others like her, were waiting for opportunities of civil disobedience to bring injustice to the attention of the media and the public at large. She was also not sitting in the “white” front section of the bus; she was sitting in the back. The rules at the time said that if a white bus rider asked her to move, she must. She refused, and was arrested. Her arrest was followed swiftly by a boycott of the Montgomery buses by African-Americans that so damaged the local economy that change quickly followed.
In his book, Kohl asks the compelling question of why the myth of Rosa the poor, tired individual was the one that got perpetuated, and why so few people know or remember the boycott, which was critical to changing the laws. He argues that it is as powerful a story, and perhaps more useful as a lesson about injustice, to learn that Parks was a member of a group that was actively seeking non-violent ways to overthrow the unjust laws they had to live with. It is also interesting to note the the actual circumstances around her arrest were more unfair than those that are more popularly known. Wouldn’t it be a better lesson, Kohl argues, to show that working together and planning can bring results?
It’s been several years since I read the book, and I passed it on to a teacher friend of mine. I no longer have it to refer to, so I fear some of these details are a bit fuzzy. What struck me when I heard about Parks’s death was the clarity with which Kohl’s passionate argument came back, and the intriguing duality of Parks the real woman and the legend, both fascinating, both brave, and both integral to change in America. The one I admire more, though, is not the mythical one who had a bad day and reacted, but the smart one who knew that there can be strength in numbers. She saw an opportunity, seized it, and history was not the same. That, to me, is the more compelling person, and the more compelling story.