Rosa Parks and the power of one

Rosa Louise Parks died in her sleep yesterday. She was 92 years old.

Rosa Louise Parks is an icon of the civil rights movement. On December 1, 1955, when asked to give up her seat to a white man and move to the back of the bus (like a good little colored woman), she refused.

From Wikipedia:

The following night, 50 leaders of the African American community, headed by the then relatively unknown minister Martin Luther King, Jr (pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama) gathered to discuss the proper actions to be taken as a result of Mrs. Parks’ arrest. What ensued next was the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The entire black community boycotted public buses for 381 days. Dozens of public buses stood idle for months until the law legalizing segregation in public buses was lifted. This event helped spark many other protests against segregation. Through her role in initiating this boycott, Rosa Parks helped make other Americans aware of the civil rights struggle. Dr. King wrote in his 1958 book, Stride Toward Freedom, "Mrs. Parks’ arrest was the precipitating factor rather than the cause of the protest. The cause lay deep in the record of similar injustices...Actually no one can understand the action of Mrs. Parks unless he realizes that eventually the cup of endurance runs over, and the human personality cries out, 'I can take it no longer.'"

One little woman.

All by herself.

Rosa Louise Parks is my hero. May she rest in peace.