Pitt faculty react to the death of Civil Rights legend

Rosa Parks, the woman who inspired a generation of civil rights reform, died Monday evening at… Rosa Parks, the woman who inspired a generation of civil rights reform, died Monday evening at the age of 92.

Parks gave life to the Civil Rights movement on Dec. 1, 1955, when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala.

Police arrested and fined Parks $10 for violating a city ordinance supporting segregation, also known as Jim Crow laws.

Pitt faculty reacted to Parks’ death and commented on her legacy this week.

“Rosa Parks is an American hero, not just a black hero,” said Larry Davis, dean of Pitt’s School of Social Work and director of Pitt’s Center on Race and Social Problems. “I am a beneficiary of Rosa Parks’ life and the Civil Rights movement. It changed my life and those of my children.”

“If Jim Crow laws were still in effect, I would certainly not be a dean here in Pittsburgh,” he added. “Rosa Parks took a stand, and she opened the door for America.”

Parks’ single act of defiance inspired the movement that ended legal segregation in America. A then unknown Baptist minister, Martin Luther King, Jr., formed a coalition that boycotted public transportation for 382 days.

The Supreme Court struck down segregation on public transportation in 1956.

“There is absolutely no doubt of her importance in history,” said Cecil Blake, chairperson of Pitt’s Africana studies department. “She went way beyond defiance, she took a bold stance against discrimination. She portrays a neverending message.”

On the Web site www.grandtimes.com, a passage from Parks’ 1994 book, “Quiet Strength,” gives insight into her ambitions.

“Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it,” she said. “I knew there was a possibility of being mistreated, but an opportunity was given to me to do what I had asked of others.”

Born Rosa McCauley on Feb 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Ala., Parks attended the Alabama State Teachers College and eventually settled in Montgomery as a seamstress with her husband, Raymond Parks.

After her husband’s death in 1977, she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, a summer program that sends teens around the country to learn about American history and the Civil Rights movement.

“Rosa Parks was a black female, and she made America a better place. She made it the way it should be,” Davis said. “Her gift to the country is more than just civil rights.”

Parks died in Detroit on Oct. 24 of natural causes. Friends and relatives were by her side.