A tribute to Rosa Parks

We, the people of the world, and particularly non-white immigrants from around the world salute you to express our deeply felt gratitude for your courage in becoming a catalyst in removal of the evil Apartheid practice from the United States.  Dear Rosa, we thank you from the depth of our hearts.

Today is her anniversary, she passed away 9 years ago today in Detroit, Michigan, leaving a rich legacy of service to humanity.  Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the United States Congress called "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".  

Had it not been for her defiant civil disobedience by courageously sitting in the bus despite the orders to get up from the seat where only white people can sit, and had it not been for the follow up by MLK, the Civil rights act would not have been a reality, and perhaps none of the non-white immigrants would have made it to the United States. You are one of the reasons I am here today in these United States.

In Dallas, there were no more than 5 Pakistani and 10 Indian families prior to the passage of Civil rights act in 1964, then a wave of immigrants came, knowing that they don’t have to drink the water from a different fountain; don’t have to sit in the back of the bus, or cannot eat in a restaurant and forget all other privileges we enjoy today because of her bold step.

I just Googled “Rosa Parks Mike Ghouse” and to my delight, I found 4,710 entries, and felt good that I have expressed my gratitude adequately.  Thank you Rosa, I would not have come to the United States without the Civil rights act and I will do my share of work in making America a great nation on the earth.

On May 1, 2010, I paid my tribute to Rosa Parks to a group of 8000 people at the Immigration Rally in Down Town Dallas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrjU0KULv-Y

We, at the Foundation for Pluralism paid our tribute to Rosa Parks at the 9^th Annual Thanksgiving Celebrations at Embassy Suites Hotel in Frisco in November 2005; she had passed away on October 24 the same year.  Narration of Thanksgiving was given by Mary Ann Thompson-Frenk, and Tribute to Rosa Parks was read by Cheryl Smith and the tribute to MLK was offered by Anne Marie Weiss and the plaque was presented to Rev. Perry Crenshaw by TV Host Ester Davis. Julie Ann Turner and Najma Ghouse were the other MC’s of the program and I delivered the Key note address “the Community is a bus.” http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/TG2005_REPORT.asp

 

On December 7, 2013, another mention of Rosa Parks in “A Muslim’s Prayer for Nelson Mandela” - http://therecoveringpolitician.com/rp-nation/mike-ghouse-a-muslims-prayer-for-nelson-mandela

 If you are in Dallas, we are holding the 16^th Annual Thanksgiving event on Saturday, November 22, and I am pleased to invite you to join us – details at: www.ThanksgivingCelebrations.org  

The following information is from Wikipedia.

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the United States Congress called "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".^[1] Her birthday, February 4, and the day she was arrested, December 1, have both become Rosa Parks Day, commemorated in both California and Ohio.

On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake's order that she give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger, after the white section was filled. Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation. Others had taken similar steps, including Irene Morgan in 1946, Sarah Louise Keys in 1955, and the members of the Browder v. Gayle lawsuit (Claudette Colvin, Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, and Mary Louise Smith) who were arrested in Montgomery months before Parks. NAACP organizers believed that Parks was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her arrest for civil disobedience in violating Alabama segregation laws, although eventually her case became bogged down in the state courts while the Browder v. Gayle case succeeded.



Parks' act of defiance and the Montgomery Bus Boycott became important symbols of the modern Civil Rights Movement. She became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation. She organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders, including Edgar Nixon, president of the local chapter of the NAACP; and Martin Luther King, Jr., a new minister in town who gained national prominence in the civil rights movement.
At the time, Parks was secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. She had recently attended the Highlander Folk School, a Tennessee center for training activists for workers' rights and racial equality. She acted as a private citizen "tired of giving in". Although widely honored in later years, she also suffered for her act; she was fired from her job as a seamstress in a local department store.
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Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism at work place, politics, religion, society, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, food and foreign policy. He is commentator on Fox News and syndicated Talk Radio shows and a writer at major news papers including Dallas Morning News and Huffington Post.  All about him is listed in several links at www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com and 10 other blogs. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.