Other mothers, other movements
Published Nov 11, 2005 11:21 PM
From an Oct. 26 audio commentary:
The death of
civil rights icon Mrs. Rosa Parks, at the age of 92, has become a national event
with media outlets running retrospectives from the Montgomery bus boycott, which
sparked the rise of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the birth of
the modern civil rights movement.
This, in this moment of familial and
social loss, is yet a good thing for it teaches and reminds the young of how
things were in an America that they did not live in. Mrs. Parks rightly deserved
the accolades and honors heaped upon her for the great and noble role she played
in a mass movement that touched the lives of millions.
Yet, unless one
reads the work of Black and radical historians, we would not know that Mrs.
Parks wasn’t the first Black woman who refused to give her seat to a white
man or was arrested for refusing to do so.
In December 1955, an organizer
of the Women’s Political Counsel, Jo Ann Robinson, acted within hours of
Mrs. Parks arrest by working the phone tree and then writing a leaflet that went
out throughout the city which read, “Another Negro woman has been arrested
and thrown in jail, because she refused to get up out of her seat on the bus for
a white person to sit down. It is the second time, since the Claudette Colvin
case, that a Negro woman has been arrested for the same thing. This has to be
stopped. Negroes have rights too for if Negroes did not ride the buses, they
could not operate.
“Three fourths of the riders are Negroes, yet we
are arrested or have to stand over empty seats. If we do not do something to
stop these arrests, they will continue. The next time it may be you, or your
daughter, or mother. This woman’s case will come up on Monday. We are
therefore asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the
arrest and trial. Don’t ride the bus to work, to town, to school, or
anywhere on Monday. You can afford to stay out of school for one day if you have
no other way to go except by bus. You can also afford to stay out of town for
one day. If you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children and grown ups,
don’t ride the bus at all on Monday. Please stay off all buses
Monday.” (“The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It,
The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson,” 1987)
Without Jo Ann
Robinson’s activism, who would know of Rosa Parks? What if she, or her
Women’s Political Counsel, did nothing? What if she hadn’t activated
the phone tree, or written and then distributed this leaflet, and what if Black
folks in Montgomery, by the hundreds, thousands and more, didn’t respond
to those leaflets?
People build movements, one by one, in tens, hundreds,
thousands and eventually millions, and what if Claudette Colvin, this poor
woman, lost not only her seat and her dignity but was later tossed in a mental
institution. Few remember this woman’s name, but her contribution that
would set the stage for Parks was immense, yet none of us can deny the power of
Montgomery and how it electrified the nation.
On Thursday, Dec. 1, 2005,
a number of organizations, unions and activists are calling for a Rosa
Park’s 50th anniversary Nationwide Strike, to shut the war down. On that
day, they’re calling for no school, no shopping, no work, to not only mark
Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat, but a nationwide strike against
poverty, racism and war. Organizers include the Million Worker March Movement,
the Troops Out Now Coalition, Black Workers For Justice and a wide, diverse
group of organizations and leaders.
When asked about the bus boycott,
Parks said, “The only thing that bothered me was that we waited so long to
make this protest.” It’s been 50 years since her heroic stand in
Montgomery, against the racist system of segregation. Today, in the brutal
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it is past time for protests against poverty,
racism and scourge of war. People joining together make movements.
From
Death Row, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email:
[email protected]
Subscribe
[email protected]
Support independent news
DONATE