I have tried all week to visualize the world we live in today, had Rosa Parks not refused to give up her seat. I can’t come up with it. The ramifications of that event changed our society as profoundly as if the sun had suddenly started rising in the west.
It’s gratifying to read today that she will be lying in honor in the Capitol Rotunda - an absolutely correct level of recognition for the magnitude of the achievements she enabled. As Representative John Coyers Jr. (D-Mich) said,
it occurred to him that only the vigil reserved for statesmen or warriors would be right. He authored the resolution to permit Parks to lie in honor inside the Capitol
I’m so glad he saw this, and moved the suggestion forward. More - I’m warmed and encouraged that the government of the United States will be able to show their respect for this heroine, and all she symbolized, in such a meaningful way.
Have we, as a nation, finally grown into a united American entity? Obviously not, or I wouldn’t be writing so often about “Race Relations” in this very blog. But the issues we deal with today are really light years from the tragedies that necessitated Rosa Parks’ courage that day on the bus. What a triumph.