My experiences with Rosa Parks: A Great and Humble lady
Leaving a client on a hospital visit last night, I heard the breaking news that Rosa Parks had died. Her name was known to me since her nationally publicized Montgomery, Alabama bus arrest. That was on December 1, 1955. I was only 11 years old at that time. In 1963 Rosa Parks and her husband moved from the deep and still segregated South to Detroit which in many ways wasn't all that much better. I moved to Detroit in the fall of 1965. In 1967 race riots plagued and shamed Detroit. After the riots, many of us Detroiters vowed 'never again.' Like many of my peers, I involved myself in local and state politics. I got to know many interesting people. I was eventually hired to work for the Michigan House of Representatives. State Representative who later became State Senator Jack Faxon gave me my first political job. I was kicked upstairs from the job as his secretary to become a "legislative analyst" -- my primary duties were those of speechwriting for the House Democratic caucus. I got to know people on both sides of the political aisle, including Grand Rapids RepublicanTom Ford. Tom was the brother of who would become President Gerald Ford.
I aspired to go to law school and Lansing had none. Therefore, I sought ways to get back to the Detroit area and the opportunity appeared when I was offered the new Highland Park, Michigan charter position as "Executive Assistant to the Mayor." My experiences in that job were as unhappy as my job in Lansing had been happy. I started law school, however, in 1972 and graduated in 1975. I was bluntly unhappy at having been placed in what appeared to be a corrupt administration. My unhappiness was publicly known. After finishing senior year final law school exams, my husband, Barry, and I took a month long driving tour of the South. Then I returned for graduation exercises and prepared to study for the bar which I successfully took in early August of 1975. While awaiting the results, I was contacted by a prominent Highland Park lady, who was backing a competitive candidate for mayor. I agreed to manage the campaign of her candidate. This was also a successful effort and the former mayor was upset and unseated in November of 1975. During the campaign, I obtained the assistance of the local congressman, John Conyers. He agreed to help and would encourage participation of his own supporters. One such supporter was Rosa Parks. Many local unions (UAW, AFL-CIO) also helped.
Our campaign was long and vigorous. Needless to say, I was motivated. While campaigning, as time honored inner city practice dictated, we visited the local churches. We were in Grace Baptist Church, approximately one block from Highland Park City Hall. The long Sunday Morning service was in progress. I was harried and tired from the incredibly long hours on the effort. I was sitting in the long Baptist service, struggling to keep awake when suddenly I felt some tugging on my clothing. I looked and behind me was Rosa Parks, needle and thread in hand. She had noticed my hem was partially loose and she was in her usual kind and gentle manner, restitching the hem. I have never forgotten that -- it was typical and vintage Rosa Parks. In addition to being brave, she was selfless.
May she rest in peace! I am honored to have fond personal memories of her.
23 comments:
Yes, you have always been a tireless crusader for truth, fairness and decency. That you and Rosa Parks should meet and work together is because those who are alike tend to come together.
I pray that what she started with in her act of civil disobedience for human rights will never end. For those of us who are disabled, this is how we try to fashion our movement--upon the great civil rights movement that Mrs. Rosa Parks began with and the catapult that resulted for many new laws for human rights for many of us. The ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) is formed upon much of what we have learned from the Civil Rights Movement of the Black community.
She truly was a humble woman with a greatness that will never be forgotten.
May she rest in peace.
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Constance, I remember you or someone else telling me about your hem and Rosa Parks mending it--she was a remarkably giving woman with a spirit that Jesus Christ welcomes into His Kingdom. It'll be a great day to meet her again, won't it! :)
OFF TOPIC - BUT IMPORTANT for understanding the big picture.
ZIONIST QUOTES:
Zionist/Jewish domination of the U.S. is well documeted. As is their hatred of gentiles.
borrowed from http://www.whatreallyhappened.com
1. "There is a huge gap between us (Jews) and our enemies not just in ability but in morality, culture, sanctity of life, and conscience. They are our neighbors here, but it seems as if at a distance of a few hundred meters away, there are people who do not belong to our continent, to our world, but actually belong to a different galaxy." Israeli president Moshe Katsav. The Jerusalem Post, May 10, 2001
2. "The Palestinians are like crocodiles, the more you give them meat, they want more".... Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel at the time - August 28, 2000. Reported in the Jerusalem Post August 30, 2000
3. " [The Palestinians are] beasts walking on two legs." Menahim Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, "Begin and the Beasts". New Statesman, 25 June 1982.
4. "The Palestinians" would be crushed like grasshoppers ... heads smashed against the boulders and walls." " Isreali Prime Minister (at the time) in a speech to Jewish settlers New York Times April 1, 1988
5. "When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle." Raphael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, New York Times, 14 April 1983.
6. "How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to." Golda Maier, March 8, 1969.
7. "There was no such thing as Palestinians, they never existed." Golda Maier Israeli Prime Minister June 15, 1969
8. "The thesis that the danger of genocide was hanging over us in June 1967 and that Israel was fighting for its physical existence is only bluff, which was born and developed after the war." Israeli General Matityahu Peled, Ha'aretz, 19 March 1972.
9. David Ben Gurion (the first Israeli Prime Minister): "If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti - Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault ? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?" Quoted by Nahum Goldmann in Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox), pp121.
10. Ben Gurion also warned in 1948 : "We must do everything to insure they ( the Palestinians) never do return." Assuring his fellow Zionists that Palestinians will never come back to their homes. "The old will die and the young will forget."
11. "We have to kill all the Palestinians unless they are resigned to live here as slaves." Chairman Heilbrun of the Committee for the Re-election of General Shlomo Lahat, the mayor of Tel Aviv, October 1983.
12. "Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it." - Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.
13. "We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimeter of Eretz Israel... Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours." Rafael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces - Gad Becker, Yediot Ahronot 13 April 1983, New York Times 14 April 1983.
14. "We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return" David Ben-Gurion, in his diary, 18 July 1948, quoted in Michael Bar Zohar's Ben-Gurion: the Armed Prophet, Prentice-Hall, 1967, p. 157.
15. "We should prepare to go over to the offensive. Our aim is to smash Lebanon, Trans-Jordan, and Syria. The weak point is Lebanon, for the Moslem regime is artificial and easy for us to undermine. We shall establish a Christian state there, and then we will smash the Arab Legion, eliminate Trans-Jordan; Syria will fall to us. We then bomb and move on and take Port Said, Alexandria and Sinai." David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978.
16. "We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population." Israel Koenig, "The Koenig Memorandum"
17. "Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahlal arose in the place of Mahlul; Kibbutz Gvat in the place of Jibta; Kibbutz Sarid in the place of Huneifis; and Kefar Yehushua in the place of Tal al-Shuman. There is not a single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population." Moshe Dayan, address to the Technion, Haifa, reported in Haaretz, April 4, 1969.
18. "We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, What is to be done with the Palestinian population?' Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said 'Drive them out!'" Yitzhak Rabin, leaked censored version of Rabin memoirs, published in the New York Times, 23 October 1979.
19. Rabin's description of the conquest of Lydda, after the completion of Plan Dalet. "We shall reduce the Arab population to a community of woodcutters and waiters" Uri Lubrani, PM Ben-Gurion's special adviser on Arab Affairs, 1960. From "The Arabs in Israel" by Sabri Jiryas.
20. "There are some who believe that the non-Jewish population, even in a high percentage, within our borders will be more effectively under our surveillance; and there are some who believe the contrary, i.e., that it is easier to carry out surveillance over the activities of a neighbor than over those of a tenant. [I] tend to support the latter view and have an additional argument:...the need to sustain the character of the state which will henceforth be Jewish...with a non-Jewish minority limited to 15 percent. I had already reached this fundamental position as early as 1940 [and] it is entered in my diary." Joseph Weitz, head of the Jewish Agency's Colonization Department. From Israel: an Apartheid State by Uri Davis, p.5.
21. "Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours... Everything we don't grab will go to them." Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, November 15, 1998.
22. "It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism,colonialization or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands." Yoram Bar Porath, Yediot Aahronot, of 14 July 1972.
23. "Spirit the penniless population across the frontier by denying it employment... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly." Theodore Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization, speaking of the Arabs of Palestine,Complete Diaries, June 12, 1895 entry.
24. "One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail." -- Rabbi Yaacov Perrin, Feb. 27, 1994 [Source: N.Y. Times, Feb. 28, 1994, p. 1]
25. "We Jews, we are the destroyers and will remain the destroyers. Nothing you can do will meet our demands and needs. We will forever destroy because we want a world of our own." (You Gentiles, by Jewish Author Maurice Samuels, p. 155).
26. "We will have a world government whether you like it or not. The only question is whether that government will be achieved by conquest or consent." (Jewish Banker Paul Warburg, February 17, 1950, as he testified before the U.S. Senate).
27. "We will establish ourselves in Palestine whether you like it or not...You can hasten our arrival or you can equally retard it. It is however better for you to help us so as to avoid our constructive powers being turned into a destructive power which will overthrow the world." (Chaim Weizmann, Published in "Judische Rundschau," No. 4, 1920)
Poster #3 "anonymous - off topic -- you are shamelessly passing off the same lies that preceded the Holocaust of the 1930s and 1940s. These "International Jew" theories are more accurately BIG LIE's along the line suggested by its then leader, Adolfus Hitler. Please take your big lie approach elsewhere. More importantly, why don't you say your prayers and repent of this madness before it is too late!
Constance,
I think that is a beautiful picture of how to remember Mrs Parks. If only more of us left that kind of mark on the world...selfless, kind, humble, caring, compassionate, etc...
Brian
And now for the rest of the story:
Haverling73 blogspot:
Noteworthy News
Of course, by now, everyone knows that Rosa Parks died. A very brave lady, she really opened a lot of doors for oppressed people. I was surprised to learn, however, that she lived her life as a person of little means. She worked all her life but, in the end, rented a small apartment that she nearly got evicted from due to non-payment of rent. Eventually, the landlord offered to let her stay there, rent-free, as long as she wanted to. Another decent human being.
http://inquirer.stanford.edu/Fall2004/vdlt/Unsung.html
or use http://tinyurl.com/8g83e
This is the story of the first person who refused to sit in the back of the bus. She didn't fit the profile of who the NAACP wanted as a symbol however for their already planned bus boycott.
Rosa Parks was a NAACP activist whose husband began the branch where the boycott took place.
From everything I've read, this does not take anything away from Rosa Parks. The real story is the planned manipulation by NAACP officials to make the story come about.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47064
or use http://tinyurl.com/8f78b
to see how anti-sodomy laws across the US were changed as a result of planning in advance. The background of how this case went to the Supreme Court was remarkably dirty.
Just like Norma Corvy in Roe vs Wade was forgotten by the abortionists after she was used, so Parks seems to have been forgotten except as a symbol by the NAACP.
I am writing this to point out that the changes being promoted by those who support the New Age movement are being brought about in this way. Do not think that things "just happen."
Technorati.com is a very useful tool.
Consider the power of being able to create incoming links to your site any time you want them...
Dear Constance:
You are a great person, and I think a kind person too, and I surely do not aim to upset you with the Zionist quotes, which I posted in all sincerity because I am concerned about the need for people to see and know all facets of any issue. Because our actions (or influence) can only be as good as our understanding, and our understanding can only be as good as our information. Believe me, I certainly do not wish to pass off lies, or even invalid concepts or thinking of my own or anyone else. That is why I thought it good to post only the direct quotes from the mouths of Zionist themselves. I did not, and still have not stated any opinions or views on those quotes, except that they are helpful for being able to understand the tone and tenor of Zionism, at least according to the thoughts and expressions of some of the it’s most prominent proponents. I thought it good for readers to just read the quotes and think for themselves. My purpose is not to expose or denigrate Jews, only to expose Zionism. You know, there are Jews who are opposed to Zionism, and vehemently denounce its precepts. Truly it has been observed that a large proportion of Zionists in this world are not Jews, but Christians!?! Why is that? I think it is because of misunderstanding of and being mislead about the meaning of the scriptures and prophecies.
The erroneous thinking goes like this. The Jews are God’s people and were supposed to be restored to the Promised Land, so therefore this must be God’s
work. Therefore our full support and enthusiasm should be behind the Zionist movement. And not only that, but God will bless us if we support the Jews or curse us if we don’t. So we better be on the right side of the line. This could call for some very interesting study, but we can’t do that here. I think we should question the strength of each of the above premises. The one central premise that is most questionable is whether the present state of Israel occupying Palestine is Gods work. But just because something takes place, that is not enough basis to declare it is the work of God. What about the holocaust?, that happened too. Was that God’s doing? No, not everything God allows to happen is necessarily his will. Obviously, God allows even things that he does not approve. So therefore, just because something is is happening, that is not enough basis to say it is God’s will. The prophesies say that the Messiah will gather the 12 tribes of Israel to the Promised Land, not only Jews. I think this is to occur after his return, when he comes into his kingdom. So what is going on now then? If God is not behind the establishment of the Zionist state of Israel, then what inspiring power is driving it? Well we know that the evil one likes to mock God, and one way he does this is by preemptive base, or perverted imitations of God’s real intentions. This is the whole concept that the NWO is Satan’s pre-emptive false substitution for the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth. The watch words for the NWO are accordingly deceitful, “peace and safety”. Could it not be then that the Zionist movement is a false, pre-emptive imitation intended to set the stage for the false NWO kingdom of the false-Christ. I think so. And therefore, even the very elect will be deceived, if it were possible.
No, I am not out to slander Jews. We must realize the Zionist state of Israel, just because of Jewish immigration, any more than the USA is equal to Christianity, just because of Christian immigration here. Only a small percentage of the world’s Jews live in Palestine. And furthermore, no nationalist State can be said to represent any of God’s people.
Also, the idea that the USA is blessed because it is allies with the Israeli state, just doesn’t hold up. It can be plainly shown that US society has been in steep moral decline over the past half century and more. And as for material blessings, the USA has been in an overall pattern of spiraling debt, taxation, and increasing trade imbalance as she continues her self-indulgent course of unbridled consumption, and foolish self-undoing. Over the past 50 or 60 years, while America has been supporting the state of Israel, in the most real and stark terms, America has been less and less blessed, and more and more cursed.
Finally, Jesus said, “for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” As we read the previously posted quotes of the Zionist, we ought to ask, what kind of spirit is in their hearts. Does it seem to be the spirit of the Lord? Or is it like Jesus said to the arrogant Jews of his time? “If Abraham were your father, you would do the works of Abraham. Instead, you do the works of your father, who is the devil.” He said that not to all Jews, but to the evil minded Jews who opposed him and his message. Today, the Israeli Zionist state continues living by the ‘eye and tooth’ law of retribution, and the message of Christ is still not allowed free distribution and preaching in the state of Israel. Would Jesus say anything different to them today?
Preplanning to gain what one should have always have had is A VERY DIFFERENT THING that preplanning for immoral and illicit activities. Moreover, when Rosa Parks lived in Detroit, she was a quiet, modest and quite and VERY CHRISTIAN widow lady for most of her stay here. Comparing Rosa Parks to pro-sodomy moves is a great insult. Rosa Parks and all others should have always had a seat on the bus -- sodomy, that's a very different apple. Let's not mix apples and excrement!
To the poster of the "anti-Zionist" messages: I cannot justify your position either biblically or politically. Certainly not morally!
On my Rosa Parks comment -- I meant to say, "that's a very different CASE (not apple). Sorry!
Rosa Parks was used by the NAACP, an organization that continues to be very political rather than moral to this day. Perhaps somewhere over all the years she gave credit to the people who came before her on the bus boycott. If so, the NAACP did not report it. The fact is she was given much credit with information that was not accurate. The ends do not justify the means. Being a good person, she probably never realized how what she was involved with would be dangerous as a tactic when used by others.
My guess is that those who worked the pro-sodomy case also thought they were doing it for the public good. Because the tactic worked in the past, it is used again and again. If truth were known, the tactic wouldn't work.
We all have weaknesses in our background, and what we accomplish we accomplish over those weaknesses. Everyone needs to know they can't stop working toward the good even if they have weaknesses and don't get credit for everything they have done. It is better that the human side of Rosa Parks identity would be known to encourage others to act and not just passively stand by waiting for other heros or heroines to act for them.
If this post just encourages someone to act on their beliefs, even if their beliefs are not acceptable to others, it is worth it. If it encourages others to not accept uncritically what the media tells us are the actions of others for what they think is the good, it is worthwhile.
In an open and not manipulated arena, the good will survive. In a manipulated arena, the good will not survive the evil against it though it may survive on occasion. When evil works on a subterranian level, the community suffers.
Simply said, if the true story of Rosa Parks and not a glamorize version of the story were told, it would accomplish more than just a part of desegretation.
What is your specific quarrel on most issues ith the NAACP. That they used political means to gain their ends is what politics was meant to be used for. Would you send back to the end of the bus and again bar human beings from restaurants and lunch counters? Explain yourself. What was immoral about seeking equal access to the American dream?
I'm sorry, I thought this comment section was to be used to comment on the actual POST that was published. Wow...was I wrong.
Please, let's keep the spam off this board. I will promptly erase all that appears to be!
Rosa Parks may have been a wonderful person, but when I wrote something negative, I'm sure others were shocked. I also believe that very few people who supported the civil rights movement knew the background of that movement. While many good things have come out of that movement, it is only part of a larger picture of some of the changes taking place in this country. We also do not know what other organizations may have been working to stop segregation in this country. Just as Rosa Parks background has been covered up, so has much other information which would shed light on the larger civil rights movement or individuals who worked to change things. To put it bluntly, I'm tired of being lied to.
The question: why did communist activists and the NAACP have to hid behind Rosa Parks skirts when they were bringing about a good thing. And, now that times have changed so much, what is the reason now that they continue to do so? Make up your own mind.
http://www.newswithviews.com/Stuter/stuter67.htm
Some people seek change because they desire chaos (the communists); other people seek change because they need change and they are humiliated by present circumstances. (Blacks affected by segregation.) Different people may have different agendas. Because Communists may have said segregation was 'bad' did not by virtue of that condemnation coming from that quarter make it good! As the Bible proclaims: "Neither to the right hand nor to the left, but strictly in the paths of the Lord!" In her later life, Rosa Parks was known as an active church woman in Detroit and was a deaconess in her church. Watching her school students talk today demonstrated her character: those working with her at the school dwelt on the fact that they and Rosa Parks would pray together when going through difficulties and they gave God the glory for bringing them through. It has been said that he who is not a liberal in his/her youth lacks heart and that he/she who is still a liberal in their forties lacks sense. But if the impoverishment of our society and its aged continues, there will be many more rationales for liberalism in old age!
Very few who step into a New Age bookstore understand the agenda behind the push to promote New Age views. Usually people start to understand what is happening around them in one of two ways.
In the first way they may hear from someone else, Constance for example, that the movement is complex and deceptive, but unless they have a reason to objectively look at all of the pieces of the puzzle, they may never go further in their search for more information. If they have a modicum of intellectual curiosity and they start to see some contradictions, they will start to search for more information. This last group has to have the inner strength to step outside of the crowd around them who are probably telling them to ignore the Constances who are sending out warnings.
Or a person on their own may find some element that they start to question and then they reach out for more information from others.
The average person has very little intellectual curiosity and questions little around them. New Age leaders, for example, promise those new to the movement many mental and physical benefits if they think in a New Age way and so these people join with those who are New Agers hoping to gain benefits to themselves.
It is now and was this way with the masses who joined communist front activities. However, there is a big difference between the leaders of these movements and the innocent followers. I am not condemning the Rose Parks kind of followers. Her only weakness seems to be that she was unable to tell the whole truth about her support system to those who made a heroine of her. She probably knew nothing of the communist front that the Highlander School was, but she also knew that it was not a spur of the moment decision on her part to refuse to move on the bus. I think in light of what she thought she could accomplish she can be forgiven this weakness.
It is those who used her and the reporters who wrote her story that I condemn for not telling the truth. They have and disrespected the community, treating the community as stupid children. They deliberately dumbed down both the black and white community while claiming to do good.
I just learned from an extremely credible source that there is a link between the New Age movement and Myles Horton of the Highlander Folk School. That might be explored later. It should give you an idea of how deep the manipulation taking place goes.
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