Rosa Parks, who sparked the civil rights movement starting in 1955, died of natural causes Oct. 24. She was 92 years old.
“She was one person, and a black woman — in a time when she could have believed that she had little power,” said Jay Rush, communication professor.
“But, she stood up to police and to arrest for a principle. All of us could use that example in our troubled world of today,” Rush said.
Parks refusal to give up her seat in the front of a bus to a white man in December 1955 prompted a 381-day boycott of the bus system, organized by Martin Luther King Jr.
“At the time I was arrested I had no idea it would turn into this,” Parks said 30 years later, according to abcnews.go.com. “It was just a day like any other day. The only thing that made it significant was that the masses of the people joined in.”
Parks worked on the staff of a Michigan Democrat, Rep. John Conyers, beginning in 1964.
Parks was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996, and The Congressional Gold Medal in June 1999.
“Every great movement requires an icon of courage and determination. Rosa Parks was certainly that for the civil rights movement,” said Eric Walz, History and Political Science department chair.
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