by Nsenga K. Burton
Writing for the Huffington Post, Dr. Jeanne Theoharis, professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, highlights some facts about civil rights activist and icon Rosa Parks unknown to most people. As many continue to regurgitate the same information about the same people involved in the civil rights movement, Dr. Theoharis is shedding light on the complexities of the civil rights legend, demonstrating that she was a whole, complex person, not just the flat characterization of the person highlighted in history books and television programming. Dr. Theoharis also discusses Parks’ legacy in the context of the United States Post Office’s issuance of a stamp commemorating what would have been her 100th birthday. Read an excerpt from the post on The Root below:
‘Today, to honor the Feb. 4 centennial of the birth of Rosa Parks, the United States Postal Service has issued a Rosa Parks stamp. Last year, a stone carving of Parks was added to the National Cathedral. In 2005, she became the first woman and second African American to lie in honor in the nation’s Capitol and, through a special act of Congress, a statue of her was ordered placed in the Capitol.
Yet these tributes to Rosa Parks rest on a narrow and distorted vision of her legacy. As the story goes, a quiet Montgomery, Ala., seamstress with a single act challenged Southern segregation, catapulted a young Martin Luther King Jr. into national leadership and ushered in the modern civil rights movement. Parks’ memorialization promotes an improbable children’s story of social change — one not-angry woman sat down, the country was galvanized and structural racism was vanquished.
This fable diminishes the extensive history of collective action against racial injustice and underestimates the widespread opposition to the black freedom movement, which for decades treated Parks’ political activities as ‘un-American.’ Most important, it skips over the enduring scourge of racial inequality in American society — a reality that Parks continued to highlight and challenge — and serves contemporary political interests that treat racial injustice as a thing of the past.”
Read this post in its entirety on The Root. Learn more about Rosa Parks on the Huffington Post.
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