SIT SO HE CAN WALK, SO THEY CAN RUN
I wonder who amongst us this morning feels insignificant. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old African American woman who worked as a seamstress, boarded a Montgomery City bus to go home from work. On that bus on that day, Rosa Parks initiated a new era in the American quest for freedom and equality. She sat near the middle of the bus, just behind the 10 seats reserved for whites. Soon all of the seats in the bus were filled. When a white man entered the bus, the driver (following the standard practice of segregation) insisted that all four blacks sitting just behind the white section give up their seats so that the man could sit there. Mrs. Parks quietly refused to give up her seat. Her action was spontaneous and not pre-meditated, although her previous civil rights involvement and strong sense of justice were obvious influences. She was arrested and convicted of violating the laws of segregation. Rosa Parks appealed her conviction and thus formally challenged the legality of segregation.
When Barack Obama was elected President some people wore T-shirts saying "Rosa sat so that King could walk so that Obama could run." Rosa Parks – a black African American woman- sat on a bus, so that Martin Luther King could walk in protest marches, so that Barack Obama could run for President.