Last month’s column started to take a look at the question of whether or not just one person can make a difference. We touched on the fact that often we consider ourselves to be just a normal person and therefore unable to make much difference. Most of us can probably think of a normal person who made a positive difference in our own lives. And whether we are purposely trying to make a difference in someone else’s life, we probably are.
Also, normal and often seemingly powerless people can make a significant difference through even one courageous act. Last month’s column gave the example of Rosa Parks, who made history on Dec. 1, 1955, by her simple yet bold act of refusing to give up her seat on the bus instead of moving so a white man could have her seat. I promised to tell more of her story that often doesn’t get told.
The bus driver involved in this incident, James Blake, had already mistreated Rosa several years earlier. Rosa had entered the front door of the city bus and paid her fare. As she went to find a seat, Blake ordered her to get off the bus and enter through the back door into the “colored section.” Rosa, humiliated, got off the bus and went to enter through the back door, but Blake drove off before she could get back on the bus.
On June 15, 1955, Blake tried to run a car driven by a Black woman named Lucille Times off the road with his bus. She was able to evade his aggression. When Lucille stopped to do an errand, he parked the bus across the street and began yelling at her.
Racist acts and attitudes were painfully common in Montgomery, Ala., and so many other places at that time. The Black people were at the end of what they could endure any longer. But who could do anything about it? Who had the courage to resist centuries-old and abusive racial oppression?
When Blake ordered Rosa to stand up and move back, it was the straw that strengthened Rosa’s back. She told Blake that she didn’t feel she should have to move. And she didn’t stand up.
This came at a cost for Rosa. Blake fined her very heavily. Then, because bus drivers had police powers to enforce segregation laws, he had her arrested.
This ignited a courage within Black people in America to begin to resist and refuse racial segregation laws instead of complying with them out of fear.
Rosa’s arrest led to the “Montgomery bus boycott,” which led to a 1956 court case in which the district court abolished segregation in public transportation in one jurisdiction of Alabama. This became a catalyst for change in how Black people were treated in America.
It was a giant step forward in a long journey that still continues today.
