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Winter 2006 Parks: Angry, Not Tired Peter Dreier Occidental College, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Dreier, Peter. ": Angry, Not Tired." Dissent. Winter 2006.

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Urban and Environmental Policy at OxyScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in UEP Faculty & UEPI Staff choS larship by an authorized administrator of OxyScholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NOTEBOOK Rosa Parks: Angry, Not Tired

Peter Dreier cause of my color.’’ Discussing her grandfather, Sylvester Edwards, she wrote, “I remember that sometimes he would call white men by their first names, or their whole names, and not say, he way we learn history shapes ‘Mister.’ How he survived doing all those kinds how we think about the present and of things, and being so outspoken, talking that the future. Consider what most big talk, I don’t know, unless it was because AmericansT know about Rosa Parks, who died he was so white and so close to being one of last October at age ninety-two. them.” In the popular legend, Parks is portrayed In the 1930s, she and her husband, as a tired old seamstress in Montgomery, Ala- Raymond Parks, a barber, raised money for the bama, who, on the spur of the moment after a defense of the , nine young, hard day at work, decided to resist the city’s black men falsely accused of raping two white segregation law by refusing to to the back women. Involvement in this controversial cause of the bus on , 1955. She is typi- was extremely dangerous for southern blacks. cally revered as a selfless individual who, with In 1943, Parks became one of the first one spontaneous act of courage, triggered the women to join the Montgomery chapter of the bus boycott and became, as she is often called, National Association for the Advancement of “the mother of the .” People and served for many years as Although a number of books—including chapter secretary and director of its youth ’s Parting the Waters, Stewart group. In the 1940s and 1950s, the NAACP Burns’s Daybreak of Freedom, and Parks’s au- was considered a radical organization by most tobiography, My Story—provide a complete southern whites, especially politicians and po- chronicle, most of the obituaries for Parks lice officials. Joining the NAACP put its mem- lacked historical context and trivialized the ef- bers at risk of losing jobs and being subject to forts that it took to destroy Jim Crow. vigilante violence. Also in 1943, Parks made What’s missing from the popular legend is her first attempt to register to vote. Twice she the reality that Parks was a veteran activist was told she didn’t pass the literacy test, which whose defiance of segregation laws was not an was a Jim Crow invention to keep blacks from isolated incident but a lifelong crusade. Also voting. In 1945, she passed the test and be- downplayed is that Parks was part of an ongo- came one of the few blacks able to exercise ing movement whose leaders had been wait- the “right” to vote. As NAACP youth director, ing for the right moment to launch a campaign Parks helped black teenagers organize protests against bus segregation. In hindsight, it may at the city’s segregated main public library be- appear that the boycott’s success was inevi- cause the library for blacks had fewer (and table. In fact, its effectiveness was the result more outdated) books, but blacks were not al- of leaders’ decisions about tactics and strate- lowed to study at the main branch or browse gies and their capacity to mobilize thousands through its stacks. of ordinary people in a complex, year-long One of Parks’s closest allies was E.D. grassroots challenge to the city’s political and Nixon, former chair of the NAACP economic establishment. and a leader of the nation’s first all-black labor Parks recalled, “I had almost a life history union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Por- of being rebellious against being mistreated be- ters. Nixon—a protégé of A. Philip Randolph,

88 ■ DISSENT / Winter 2006 NOTEBOOK a socialist agitator, writer, and union organizer to go downtown and work for ,” who founded the Brotherhood with the dual Parks recalled. purpose of promoting workers’ rights and civil In 1954, soon after the Supreme Court’s rights—was a gifted organizer and strategist. Brown decision outlawing school segregation, Nixon, Parks, and other NAACP leaders had , an African American profes- frequently talked about challenging sor at the all-black Alabama State College, and Montgomery’s segregated bus system and the a leader of Montgomery’s Women’s Political bus drivers’ abusive treatment of black riders. Council (WPC), wrote a letter to Montgom- ery mayor W.A. Gayle, saying that “there has arks was also friends with (and occa- been talk from 25 or more local organizations sional seamstress for) Clifford and Vir- of planning a city-wide boycott of buses.” By P ginia Durr, white, upper-crust New Deal the following year, the WPC made plans for a progressives who had been active in civil rights boycott and was waiting for the right person efforts—he as a lawyer, she as a volunteer. Mrs. to be arrested—someone who would agree to Durr encouraged (and put up the money for) test the segregation laws in court, and who was Parks to attend a ten-day interracial workshop “above reproach.” during the summer of 1955 at the Highlander In 1955, two teenage girls—Claudette Folk School, a training center for union and Colvin and Mary Louise Smith—were arrested civil rights activists in rural . in separate incidents for refusing to give up their Founded by in 1932, Highlander seats, but Nixon decided that neither of them was one of the few places where whites and was the right person around whom to mobilize blacks— rank-and-file activists and left-wing the community. Parks, in contrast, was a pillar radicals— could participate as equals. of the black community. She had graduated from Throughout its history, but particularly during high school, which was rare for a black woman the civil rights movement (Martin Luther , in Montgomery then. At forty-two, she had a Jr., , , John wide network of friends and admirers from her Lewis, and all attended church and civil rights activities. workshops there), Highlander faced hostility On Thursday, December 1, 1955, Parks and repression from local and national right- finished her work at the Montgomery Fair de- wing politicians, and was briefly shut down in partment store, boarded a city bus, and sat 1961 for violating state laws regarding segre- with three other blacks in the fifth row, the gation. At the workshop that Parks attended, first row that blacks were allowed to occupy. civil rights activists talked about strategies for A few stops later, the front four rows were implementing integration. filled with whites. One white man was left For Parks, “One of my greatest pleasures standing. According to law, blacks and whites there was enjoying the smell of bacon frying could not occupy the same row, so the bus and coffee brewing and knowing that white driver asked all four of the blacks seated in folks were doing the preparing instead of me. the fifth row to move. Three acquiesced, but I was 42 years old, and it was one of the few Parks refused. The driver called the police and times in my life up to that point when I did had Parks arrested. not feel any hostility from white people.” The “People always say that I didn’t give up my Highlander experience strengthened Parks’s re- seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true,” solve, showing her that it was possible for Parks later explained. “I was not tired physi- blacks and whites to live in “an atmosphere of cally, or no more tired than I usually was at complete equality” and without what she called the end of a working day. . . . No, the only tired “any artificial barriers of .” I was, was tired of giving in.” Bus segregation had long been a source of Because of her reputation and web of anger for southern blacks, including those in friendships, word of Parks’s arrest spread Montgomery, the state capital. “It was very hu- quickly. Nixon called the police to find out the miliating having to suffer the indignity of riding specifics, but was told that it was “none of your segregated buses twice a day, five days a week, damn business.” He asked Clifford Durr to call,

DISSENT / Winter 2006 ■ 89 NOTEBOOK who soon found out the circumstances of nized fund-raisers to raise money for gas and Parks’s arrest. Nixon went to the jail, posted car repairs to keep the carpool system going. Parks’s bond, and asked her for permission to About seventeen thousand African Ameri- use her case to challenge the city’s bus segre- cans—almost all of the city’s black bus riders— gation laws in court and in the streets. participated in the boycott, despite threats from employers and others that doing so could hat followed is one of the most cost them their jobs. amazing examples of effective orga- Throughout the year, MIA leaders success- W nizing in American history. That fully used church meetings, sermons, rallies, night, several black community leaders met to songs, and other activities to help maintain the develop an action plan. Robinson mimeo- black community’s spirits, nonviolent tactics, graphed leaflets urging Montgomery’s blacks and resolve against the almost monolithic op- to stay off the city buses on Monday, when position of the city’s white business and politi- Parks would appear in court. They circulated cal leaders. the leaflets among the city’s segregated school Montgomery police arrested the carpool system, churches, civic groups, and work- drivers for minor (and often nonexistent) traf- places. Black teachers, for example, told stu- fic offenses. White leaders pressured insurance dents to take the leaflets home to parents. companies to cancel liability insurance for the Robinson and Nixon asked black ministers to drivers, but the MIA found a black insurance use their Sunday sermons to spread the word. agent in who agreed to write policies. Some refused, but many others—including the In February 1956, more than ten thousand newly arrived twenty-six-year-old minister at whites attended a White Citizens Council rally Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Martin Luther in Montgomery, featuring U.S. Senator James King, Jr.—agreed. Eastland (D-Miss), to encourage the city to The one-day boycott was very effective. resist desegregation. The segregationists also Most black residents stayed off the buses. As resorted to violence. They bombed the homes King would later recall, “A miracle had taken of King, Nixon, and Reverend , place. The once dormant and quiescent Ne- a white minister of a predominantly black gro community was now fully awake.” church, who supported the boycott. Within a few days, the boycott leaders Whites tried to use the legal system to their formed a new group, the Montgomery Im- advantage. On February 21, city police indicted provement Association (MIA) and elected a re- eighty-nine blacks under an old law prohibiting luctant King as president. The ministers dif- boycotts. King, the first defendant to be tried, fered over whether to call off the boycott after was found guilty and ordered to pay $500, plus one day, but agreed to put the question up to a another $500 in court costs, or spend 386 days vote at a mass meeting. That night, seven thou- in the state penitentiary. The others were re- sand blacks crowded into Holt Street Baptist leased on bond and appealed their arrests. Church. Inspired by King’s words—“There During the boycott, MIA leaders negotiated comes a time when people get tired of being with city leaders to try to find a resolution. trampled over by the iron feet of oppression”— Montgomery’s white political officials felt in- they voted unanimously to continue the boy- creasing pressure from the national media at- cott. tention and the economic losses caused by the The boycott lasted for 381 days. Although dramatic drop in bus ridership (blacks had ac- many blacks walked to and from work during counted for 60 percent of the passengers). the boycott, the MIA also organized an elabo- Some business leaders, who were losing rev- rate “private taxi” plan with more than two hun- enue because blacks were less likely to shop dred cars as a parallel transportation system, in downtown stores, also expressed concern. an enormous undertaking. Drivers (including Initially, boycott leaders did not demand a a handful of sympathetic whites) picked up and complete end to bus segregation. On Decem- dropped off blacks who needed rides at desig- ber 8, the boycott’s fourth day, King and other nated points. Black community activists orga- MIA leaders met with bus company officials

90 ■ DISSENT / Winter 2006 NOTEBOOK and political leaders to propose a desegrega- lunch counter. The sit-in strategy spread tion plan similar to ones already adopted in quickly throughout the South, led primarily by Mobile, Alabama, and Baton Rouge, . black college students who formed the Student They simply asked that blacks be able to board Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). from the back of the bus and move forward as The Highlander School played a key role in they sat down, until there were no more seats; linking the adult and student wings of the civil whites would board from the front. (Under the rights movement. current system, blacks paid at the front and then had to disembark and walk to the back lthough the civil rights agenda is still entrance.) They also demanded that the white unfinished, the freedom struggle re- bus drivers be courteous to all patrons and that A sulted in many legal victories and im- the bus company hire black drivers. The white portant social, political, and economic changes leaders rejected the proposals. that transformed America. Rosa Parks became When it became clear that the white es- an American icon. Schools, streets, and com- tablishment would not compromise, MIA lead- munity centers are named in her honor. In ers decided to file a federal lawsuit against 1999, President presented her Montgomery’s segregation law as a violation of with the Medal of Freedom, the highest award the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment. the U.S. government can bestow on a civilian. , a young black attorney, handled the When visited in 1990, lawsuit (with Durr’s behind-the-scenes help). he insisted on meeting with Parks. Mandela On June 4, the three-judge panel voted two to said that Parks had inspired him while he was one that the segregation laws were unconsti- jailed in . tutional. Montgomery County’s lawyers imme- The real Rosa Parks is more interesting diately began an appeal to the Supreme Court, than the legend. Parks is often paired with so MIA leaders continued the boycott. On , who had defied bus segrega- December 20, 1956, the Supreme Court ruled tion laws while in the Army and who broke that the segregated bus system was unconsti- ’s color line in 1947, as civil rights pio- tutional. That day, an integrated group of boy- neers. But the integration of baseball was not cotters, including King, rode the city buses. simply an act of individual heroism on During the boycott, Parks and her husband lost Robinson’s part. It took an interracial protest their jobs. In 1957, they moved to Detroit, movement among liberal and progressive ac- where Parks continued her quiet involvement tivists, as well as the Negro press, which had in the civil rights movement. She worked for agitated for years to integrate Major League several years as a seamstress at a small factory Baseball before Dodgers General in downtown Detroit. From 1965 until her re- signed Robinson to a contract tirement in 1988, Parks worked as a reception- in 1945, then brought him up to the majors ist in the Detroit office of U.S. representative two years later. , a founding member of the Con- Similarly, Parks did not single-handedly gressional Black Caucus—now with forty-four “spark” the bus boycott. She was part of a net- members, compared with the three black rep- work of organizations and activists (including resentatives in 1955. many women) who had the leadership capac- The Montgomery boycott propelled the ity and resources—telephone lists, mimeo- civil rights movement into national conscious- graph machines, access to teachers, clergy, and ness. King became a public figure. The MIA’s others—to act strategically. Although legend success led King and other black ministers to has framed the Montgomery boycott as a spon- form the Southern Christian Leadership Con- taneous outburst of protest, it was rooted in ference, which became a major instigator of the experiences of Parks and other activists, civil rights protest. The movement picked up who had learned valuable lessons from their steam after February 1, 1960, when four black mentors in the labor and civil rights move- college students in Greensboro, North Caro- ments. Indeed, the success of any movement lina, organized the first sit-in at a Woolworth’s for social change depends on the often invis-

DISSENT / Winter 2006 ■ 91 NOTEBOOK ible day-to-day work of unsung grassroots lead- ery in 1955. ers who make important choices about strat- But one of the key lessons of that era is egy, tactics, fund-raising, developing new lead- that history is full of surprises. Many ideas ers, cultivating allies, deciding when to engage that were once considered outrageous, uto- in lawsuits and elections and when to resort pian, and impractical are today taken for to protest, picking battles they can win, and granted. The radical ideas of one generation knowing when to compromise. often become the common sense of subse- Contemporary struggles for justice—union quent generations. That only happens when campaigns, environmental , efforts to people like Rosa Parks—a movement activ- promote fair trade, the campus crusade ist, not a tired old woman—join forces for the against sweatshops, challenges to U.S. mili- long haul. • tarism and the war in Iraq, battles to sustain the momentum of gay rights and women’s Peter Dreier, professor of politics and director equality, and agitation to preserve and expand of the Urban & Environmental Policy Program at the victories of the civil rights movement— Occidental College, is co-author of The Next Los may seem modest by comparison to the move- Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City (University ments of the that began in Montgom- of Press).

92 ■ DISSENT / Winter 2006