Let’s remember the lady, who, 55 years ago, on the same day, challenged the racial prejudice of a mighty nation.
The historical story of her bus journey is well known. To attribute “she was tired and weary from a long day of work” as the cause of her defiance is a gross understatement of her resolve. She was actually tired of the attitude of racial discrimination. She was not the first human being to have stood up for freedom. Not that she or any other African Americans was never treated that way before, but on that fateful day she refused to procrastinate any further. She decided to be the first to stand up for the cause and protest for the unjust treatment. She decided to be the change.
“The only thing that bothered me was that we waited so long to make this protest”, she expressed, many times. Rosa Parks in her book, “Quiet Strength”, muses, "Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it." Her arrest and trial, a 381-day Montgomery bus boycott, and, finally, the Supreme Court's ruling in November 1956 that “segregation on transportation is unconstitutional” is all history now.
Her achievements has not only affected her and the then African Americans, it has affected all the human beings equally. It is also going to affect the coming generations as well. It has indebted us all. Let’s continue to maintain the spirit of work, be we be Black or White; American , European, African or Asian.
It will be the true honor to the lady “ Who Changed a Nation.”
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