Rosa Parks Dies at 92 - A Woman of Substance

When a tiny frail woman named Rosa Parks was on her way home from work that fateful December day in 1955, she was tired, too tired to relinquish her seat to a White man. Mother Dorothy Height said that Rosa told her that she was a “child of God” and that “any child of could change the world” that she was “tired of yielding to a system that was so unjust”. Julian Bond said that she was an “Icon of non-violence”.

When the trouble started according to Congressman John Conyers, Mother Rosa said she thought about Emmett Till and just couldn’t get up. “A woman with an aura like Mother Theresa always brought a feel of peace to the office”, said Conyers. “But Rosa Parks didn’t believe in total non violence like Dr. King”. Conyers recounted a story told by Mother Rosa about a man that assaulted Dr King. Kings response was to do nothing as the man continued to pound on him. “On that issue Rosa stood with Malcolm”, said Conyers “that self-defense was justified”. Whatever the reason that sparked Mother Rosa’s refusal to get up out of that seat, being tired, Emmett Till, or child of God, Rosa Park was the spark that lit our flame.

For eight years the price of freedom for Mother Rosa was “The Black List”[many of us know this list personally]. Due to endless death threats she had to leave her native Alabama and move to Detroit, Michigan, but even in Detroit she couldn’t find employment. It was John Conyers that finally gave Rosa Parks a job. Conyers was then the first African-American to be elected to Congress from the state of Michigan and felt he owed it the Mother Rosa. We all owe Mother Rosa. We owe her a debt of action.

It was only fitting that it was Rosa Parks that would be the first American woman to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. From 8 pm on Sunday evening until 10 am Monday morning some two hundred thousand people lined up for a mile around the building to acknowledge her great gift to all of us. I was fortunate enough to be at the memorial service for Rosa Parks at the Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, DC. At the service it was announce that from this day forward at the consecration of all Deaconesses of the African Methodist Episcopal Church the name of Rosa Parks would be read alone with the names of ancient woman of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.

To be honest, I really had no intension of attending. I had wanted to go to the Capitol, just minutes away from home but I thought to myself, “ I’ll never get in”. I made every excuse for not going but as fate would have it, I had an appointment just across the street from the church where her memorial service was being held. While at my appointment I watched the memorial service on C-Span.

Now I ain’t much of a church person but as I left that appointment I decided--for Rosa Parks I was goin’ to church. So I walked across the street right through the police and right up to the front of the church. There were hundreds of people outside but they had rigged up speakers so that those of us outside could hear the eulogy. I moved in a little closer to the church and found myself standing next to the hearse, which surprised me. I thought to myself, “I will stay right here”. There was a woman from Philadelphia standing next to me. She told the story of her youth on the eastern shore of Maryland—a hot bed of racism in the civil rights era. She told me of how her family had moved to Philadelphia in order to escape the regular attacks on African-Americans by angry Whites. She said to me “Miss Rosa was a brave woman, these kids today have no idea how it was. They just have no idea how frightening it was. How filled with terror we all were. Miss Rosa was a brave woman. God Bless her”. She wiped the tears from her face. “I came all the way from Philadelphia on the Greyhound and stood outside the Capitol all night. Then I made my way over here, over to the church”.

I was too embarrassed to tell her that my attendance had not been deliberate. That I had just happened over to the church and here was a woman that hadn’t sleep all night and clearly by her appearance had suffered to be there standing next to me. A reminder of what an ass I was. Never-the-less destiny brought me there. At that moment people began to leave the memorial service. The first person out of the church was Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld accompanied by his wife. The flash bulbs began to flash. Then came Republican Senator Bill Frist; Mastermind, Carl Rove; Home Land Security Director, Michael Chertoff and a host of other republican stalwarts and the usual politicians including Senator Ted Kennedy and Howard Dean. The crowd was silent as they left the church. Then Oprah Winfrey exited and the women began to chatter. The woman from Philadelphia said, “Look at Oprah. She looks beautiful doesn’t she?” Oprah did look great. Shortly thereafter came Marion Barry and the crowd broke out into a rousing cheer. Many people don’t remember Marion Barry had been at the forefront of the campaign against segregated lunch counters, a Freedom Rider and founder member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) long before he was mayor of Washington. Now it seems, as it has been in the past that the news machine berates Barry as a criminal and tax evader instead of the hero he truly is. He’s clearly been Black Listed [we should be saying White Listed since they do it] for many years so I’m sure that money problems are nothing new to him. But on this day no one could deny him his due as a genuine hero of the civil rights movement. I always say that when the White man goes to such lengths to destroy a Black man, he must be doin’ somethin’ good for us--so much respect for Marion Barry.

After Marion Barry came the members of Mother Rosa’s family and her friends and the crowd cheered again. Then came Mother Rosa herself in a box of what looked to be the most beautiful rosewood I have ever seen. As they placed her casket in the hearse I put both my hand on it, as did everyone who could reach. Of course the flash bulbs started popping at the sight of so many trying to reach out for a little bit of the spirit of Mother Rosa. Her spirit was clearly present. So every time you get on a bus, get a job, or get a visa remember Mother Rosa’s courage. Watch the memorial service on C-Span Capitol News http://www.capitalnews.org/ and click on “Rosa Parks Memorial Service” make sure you watch and listen to Mother Rosa’s childhood friend Johnnie Carr.

I couldn’t attend the funeral in Detroit but it took two military planes to carry all the Washington notables and members of Congress that attended. Watch and listen to Mother Rosa’s Funeral by going to http://www.cspan.org/Search/advancedsearchform.asp enter "Rosa Parks Funeral" in the search box. It’s almost 7 hours long, but worth it. If you don’t have the time to watch it all fast forward to about 2 hours 17mins into the program and listen to John Conyers recount of how Nelson Mandela honored Mother Rosa when he was released from prison after 25 years.