Rosa Parks dies at 92

The symbol of the Civil Rights struggle has died. "She sat down in order that we may stand up," said Jesse Jackson about her historic refusal to give up her bus seat for a white man. Many blacks before her had actually refused to move to the back of the bus in the South so white people could take the middle seats -- the first four rows were reserved for whites, and blacks could sit in the middle, but all of them had to move to the back if a single white needed a seat in the middle. One of the refusers, a 15-year-old girl, was chosen to be the symbol to kick off a boycott led by the Women's Political Council (yes, women led the way), with Rosa Parks helping to raise money for the girl's defense. But then the girl turned out to be pregnant, and therefore not a good symbol (today that wouldn't matter, but back then it did).

Then Mrs. Parks had her own encounter -- in a bizarre coincidence, with a busdriver who had thrown her off a bus 12 years before. The driver demanded that four blacks move so a single white could be seated. Three complied, but Rosa Parks was fed-up and remained seated; when the driver threatened to call the police and have her arrested, she said, "You may do that." She was charged and found guilty -- fined $10, with $4 court costs. As an admired Montgomery citizen and NCAAP volunteer, she was the right symbol. Martin Luther King, the new 26-year-old new pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, was drafted to head the Montgomery Improvement Association, and the Civil Rights struggle began in earnest. The bus boycott lasted 13 months. Blacks would carpool or walk to work, some as far as 20 miles. NY Times obit here.