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Published: 3 Nov, 2005

Rosa Parks—Standing Tall by Sitting Down
By Raynard Jackson
 

OThough Rosa Parks died Monday night, her life and legacy will continue to live on for years to come. She deserves all the accolades she is receiving, but most don’t realize that she was not the first to refuse to give up her seat.

Several months before Parks, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin did the same thing in the same city. One day in 1955, Colvin and three other black women sitting in the middle of a bus were asked to give up their seats to white passengers. Two did, but Colvin and an elderly woman refused. When the bus driver called the police, the elderly woman fled. Colvin refused to run. She bravely waited for the police to arrest her.

After police took Colvin away in handcuffs, some activists considered using this case as their catalyst to attack segregated seating on busses. They learned Ms. Colvin was pregnant and unmarried, and they feared that putting her in the spotlight would give blacks a bad image. They also feared the larger community would not support a pregnant teenager and therefore would not support her cause to end segregation.

Later that same year, Rosa Parks followed Colvin's example of brave defiance, refused to yield her seat to a white passenger, and got arrested just as Colvin did. This time, civil rights activists such as E.D. Nixon and Martin Luther King rallied behind Parks and finally launched the boycott they had considered launching over the Colvin arrest.

Now, the NAACP had their model plaintiff and King was the movement’s perfect leader who would lead the bus boycott. The boycott lasted for 381 days.

King later wrote that Parks had become “a victim of both the forces of history and the forces of destiny.”

The boycott’s led to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which banned racial discrimination in public accommodations.

So, we all stand on the shoulders of Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks. But what I find sad and embarrassing is how we in the Black community allow our icons to suffer in their later years.

Ms. Parks had a series of high profile legal /financial problems in her later years. Her foundation’s van was repossessed, the IRS placed liens her foundation’s property for failure to pay taxes, she was threatened with eviction several times from her home, etc.

I separate her business affairs from her personal affairs. Where was Jesse, Al, etc. when she was threatened with eviction. She should have never been in such a tenable situation to begin with Where were all the athletes and entertainers who constantly invoked her name at awards ceremonies? Why didn’t she have a modest house bought and paid for years ago? She should have had a trust fund set up specifically to take care of her living expenses for life.

Why is it that we allow our icons to suffer embarrassments in their later years. Joe Lewis (ended up being a doorman at a Las Vegas Casino), Redd Foxx (IRS put a lien on and repossessed all his belongings), the Ron Isley (lost their music catalogue that was auctioned off to Michael Bolton because of back taxes), Sammie Davis, Jr. (and his wife Altovise) died in financial ruin, (it was Frank Sinatra who gave Altovise $ 1 million in cash after the funeral), etc. Yeah, some of their embarrassments were self-inflicted, but at a minimum, the beneficiaries of their work should have stood up to make sure at least they had a roof over their heads and food on the table.

Can you think of any other race of people who allows their elders to suffer such embarrassments? African culture dictates that you take care of them. Name the last trailblazer of Jewish decent to end their years in such a manner.

By allowing her to go through her last years in such a manner and not standing up for her, Jesse, Al, Louie, please sit down!


About the Author

Raynard Jackson is president and CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, Inc., a political consulting/government affairs firm in Washington, D.C. RJA provides strategic advice and counsel to elected officials (White House, Congress), corporations and entrepreneurs.