The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, passed away on October 24, 2005, in Detroit, Michigan. As we commemorate the 20th anniversary of her death, her life continues to shine like an eternal star in the firmament of human struggle and dignity. Her simple yet resolute act of defiance on December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama—refusing to surrender her bus seat—was far more than an act of personal protest. It became a timeless assertion of the inherent dignity and civil rights of every African American.
The oft-repeated portrayal of Rosa Parks as a weary seamstress who spontaneously refused to give up her seat is a distortion of history. In reality, she was already a seasoned activist and community organiser. Beginning in 1943, she served as the secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), a position she held for over a decade. She investigated brutal cases of racial violence and sexual assault, including the abduction of Recy Taylor, meticulously documenting the injustices endured by Black people. In 1955, she attended a workshop at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee—an institution committed to social justice—where her understanding of organised nonviolent resistance deepened.
Her refusal to move that evening in December was thus neither impulsive nor born of fatigue. It was a conscious act of defiance, rooted in years of resistance and emboldened by the memory of 14-year-old Emmett Till’s lynching just months earlier. As she later recalled, she knew she could not turn away.
Her arrest became the spark that ignited a revolution. The Montgomery Improvement Association was formed to coordinate a response, led by a then little-known minister, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. What followed was the Montgomery Bus Boycott, one of the most remarkable mass movements in American history. For 381 days, some 40,000 Black commuters walked, carpooled, and organised alternative transport, enduring immense hardship to challenge the city’s racist bus system. The boycott culminated in the landmark Supreme Court ruling Browder v. Gayle (1956), which declared bus segregation unconstitutional.
The boycott marked a turning point in the struggle for Black liberation. It transferred leadership from the NAACP’s legal strategists to ordinary working people—“the little people”—who now steered their own destiny. It transformed the civil rights movement into a spiritual and collective uprising born from the Black church. Rosa Parks stood as the bridge between these worlds—a torchbearer who carried forward the cumulative strength of all who fought before her.
The victory in Montgomery came at a personal price. Rosa and her husband, Raymond, lost their jobs and faced relentless threats, forcing them to move to Detroit in 1957. Yet her commitment to justice never wavered. She worked for Congressman John Conyers for over two decades, supported the Black Power movement, and campaigned against apartheid in South Africa. In 1987, she co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, which continues to guide young people and teach the history of civil rights through programs like Pathways to Freedom. She also chronicled her experiences in her autobiography Rosa Parks: My Story and her memoir Quiet Strength.
Rosa Parks’s courage became the moral foundation of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Her quiet strength propelled the cause of racial equality to the national stage and elevated Dr. King to prominence. Her example demonstrated that disciplined, collective nonviolent action could dismantle institutional racism. Her influence extended far beyond America—she became a global symbol of dignified resistance against oppression.
Throughout her life, Parks linked racial justice with global peace. She opposed U.S. involvement in Vietnam, condemned U.S. interventions in Central America during the 1980s, and protested against American complicity in South African apartheid. After 9/11, she joined Harry Belafonte, Danny Glover, and other activists in urging the U.S. to pursue justice through international institutions rather than war.
For Parks, justice meant more than representation. She publicly opposed Clarence Thomas’s nomination to the Supreme Court, warning that his record on civil and voting rights was “a U-turn on the road to racial progress.”
Rosa Parks was more than the woman who refused to give up her seat. She was a lifelong crusader against injustice—a tireless organiser, a moral visionary, and a symbol of enduring resistance. On this anniversary, we remember her not only for what she did in Montgomery but for what she continued to do for half a century thereafter. Her life reminds us that courage is not the absence of fear, but the conviction that something else is more important—and that even the simplest act, when rooted in principle, can transform the world.
In the 1990s, an aging Rosa Parks scribbled on a paper bag: “The struggle continues... The struggle continues... The struggle continues.” Until her last breath, she insisted, “Don’t give up and don’t say the movement is dead.”
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*Freelance journalist
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