EDITORIAL – Rosa Parks leaves a legacy for us to carry on

With the 50th anniversary of her refusal to sit in the black section of the bus approaching… With the 50th anniversary of her refusal to sit in the black section of the bus approaching this December, civil rights activist Rosa Parks died at the age of 92 yesterday.

While her act of disobedience against the Jim Crow laws cost her $10 and the humiliation of being arrested, her contribution to the Civil Rights movement is invaluable. Rosa Parks is noted for launching one of the most organized, non-violent protests in the form of a boycott that lasted more than a year.

She was a catalyst who stood up for what she believed in and started a revolution. But perhaps, as we lean further into the 21st century, what was most interesting about her was drawn up when the legitimacy of her efforts was questioned. Many said that she wasn’t the first, last or only contributor, yet she received an immeasurable amount of credit.

Some question her contribution because of suspicions that it happened accidentally, and that her intentions were not revolutionary, but rather to simply sit down after a grueling shift at work. Many have criticized her in film and in other media sources for not being the real thing.

But just because she is the embodiment of this idea of protest doesn’t negate the importance of what she did. The truth is that change starts at the bottom. Whether it happened with her or before her, she perpetuated this form of protest and should be noted for it. Everything adds up; the magnitude of the issue is what matters.

Furthermore, we live in a society that necessitates connecting a name, voice and face with an act of importance. Sometimes this goes for positive as well as negative things. We find some comfort that we can attribute the of the Holocaust with Hitler. The people of Iraq have similar sentiments about Saddam Hussein.

Be that as it may, positive or negative, it’s a very human characteristic to look for an ideal, a symbol. The truth is we are obsessed with embodying virtues with images. Interestingly enough, even though Rosa Parks wasn’t the first or last to take a stand by sitting down, her vibrant personality and her high moral and ethical standards made her the perfect person to uphold the image of the African-American community throughout the Civil Rights movement and even today.

She wasn’t looking to sign up for a representative position in committing this noble act; very few of us do when we are change-making. But she upheld a standard that left footprints for thousands to walk in and follow her example.

Looking at our world 50 years later, even with eradication of Jim Crow laws there is plenty to protest about. But revolution is not an extracurricular activity. Parks has taught us that protest can be effective when there is a cohesive movement behind it and consistency. Black people in the south boycotted buses for 13 months. How long are you willing to be committed to your cause? The time is now.