Rosa Parks…History As "We Do Not Know" It And A Happy Birthday

The Progressive Influences by policy and practice avoided setting aside publishing about African-Americans and our corner of the universe of US History until (February) as Black History Month. We acknowledge and educate about African-American contributions to US History on a daily basis via pages on the site that are less viewed (e.g., The History Buff). Yet, we take advantage of the proliferation and publication of information that others move to the top of their information base during Black History Month.  The following NPR, New Hour, with Gwen Ifill is one such video accompanied screed. 

        

Time never slows, time never stops.  

Rosa Parks was a historic activist in the struggle to rid the US South of inhumane and stifling Jim Crow. Since, you know the story, we will post a short extract (and link) about her civil disobedience.  We wish a Happy 100th Birthday, to an activist whom the nation owes so very much. Somehow we feel the spirit of Ms. Parks can hear the birthday wishes and she smiles. 

WIKI

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement”.^[1]

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 in the twentieth century, 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) arrested 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 though eventually her cased became bogged down in the state courts. ^[2]

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 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a new minister in town who gained national prominence in the civil rights movement.

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Gwen Ifill, NPR, has published an ‘outside the box’ screed about MS Parks of old and Ms. Parks of today. The screed describes a legacy with twists and turns to Civil Rights history. Despite public knowledge that Ms. Parks had attended what is commonly referred to as a ‘civil disobedience’ class (training workshop), may have written that her act of historic defiance was an “on the spot, I am tired” protest act.   

GWEN’S TAKE — February 7, 2013 at 3:50 PM EDT

Gwen’s Take: Happy 100th Birthday, Rosa Parks

BY: GWEN IFILL

EXCERPT

Jeanne Theoharis, a political science professor at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, knew there was more to Parks’ story, even though bits and pieces of it have appeared in various history books. She also knew no one had written a scholarly biography of the woman who captured a nation’s imagination. 

That’s in part because many of Mrs. Parks’ papers and belongings remain locked away, the subject of a dispute between the organization she founded and her family. That has made her writings and artifacts — including Smithsonian-worthy items like her eyeglasses and papers — inaccessible to historians, held in storage by an auction house hoping to sell them for many millions of dollars. 

But what Theoharis does reconstruct in her book, “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks,” is illuminating. She was not meek. She was not used. She was as fond of Malcolm X as she was of Martin Luther King Jr.

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Parks’s defiant act may not have been the first such act of defiance, it may have been for less spontaneous than history has archived, but it equals the significant efforts of others like Medgar Evers in helping free a people.   It was an act that (whether planned of not planned) moved civil rights activism forward.  

After many years of reports, and thinking Jackie Robinson was the very and only first African-American big league professional baseball player, I was startled to learn differently. 

Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey

 

History Dot Com 

In 1947, the same year Jackie Robinson became the first African-American player in the major leagues, Veeck signed Larry Doby to be the first African-American player in the American League.

Larry Doby

 Rosa Parks is iconic.
 Jackie Robinson is iconic.

Larry Doby and people who refused to sit in the back of the bus do not have iconic places in civil rights and US History.  Their contributions helped to advance the rights African-Americans have today. Yet, Iconic (ism) is critical in social movements as it is critical to changes in mindsets.  

Happy Birthday Rosa Parks…….

Your sacrifice and the sacrifices of others remains with us.

KKK Alive and Well In America! (VIDEO)

Quick Hit. We will leave this one for your interpretation.

14 News, WFIE, Evansville, Henderson, Owensboro

As long as you know, if these people vote know they vote opposite the view of The Progressive Influence, The Pardu, and all progressives in the nation.  Also know they may well join you in your votes for the modern day GOP.

Bob Marley: Entertainer, Statesman, and Prophetic

Cross posted from Facebook with minor visual additions. Thank You…. Jon S. Randal. 

By Jon S. Randal

He was born on February 6, 1945 and raised in Trench Town, one of Jamaica’s poorest neighborhoods. He struggled in poverty, but he found inspiration in the music around him. It was this music that lifted Bob Marley, and it was this music that would carry him, making him one of the most beloved icons in Jamaica.

                                                          Redemption Song

His songs represented what he saw, what he believed, lifting his countrymen from the social injustice, poverty, and oppression that they lived with every day. He gave the people hope, he gave the people courage, he urged them to “Get up, stand up! Stand up for your rights! Get up, stand up! Don’t give up the fight!” 

He was so popular, he was so vocal that others began to fear his voice. On the night of December 3, 1976, two days before a planned concert, he was nearly assassinated. A group of gunmen attacked Marley, bullets striking him twice and also injuring his wife. His manager was shot 5 times and had to fight for his life. Despite the attack, Marley still played at the show after much deliberation. When asked why, Marley responded, “The people who are trying to make this world worse aren’t taking a day off. How can I?” (Note: the short link at “played at the show” is an extract from a hour long concert. We posted the link to show the large number of none band members on the stage. The very dim lighting and crowded stage were measures against another assassination attempt. It is also rumored “after much deliberation” could mean some of the Wailers did not take part in the show for fear of another assassination attempt).

Because of the attack, however, Marley agreed to a self-imposed exile, leaving his beloved Jamaica. He, however, continued writing songs to empower not only the people back home, but people everywhere. In 1977, Marley discovered he had cancer, but instead of taking doctors’ advice on treating it, he continued touring and writing his songs. When he realized he wasn’t getting better, he longed to return to his beloved Jamaica.

He wrote “Redemption Song,” one of his finest songs. According to his wife, “he was already secretly in a lot of pain” and this song dealt with his own mortality. The song urges listeners to “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery,” because “None but ourselves can free our minds.” He was honored with the Medal of Peace from the United Nations in 1980. But, Bob Marley was never able to finish his journey back home, dying in Miami, Florida, on May 11, 1981. His final words to his son Ziggy were “Money can’t buy life.” Still adored by the people of Jamaica, Marley was given a hero’s sendoff with more than 30,000 people paying their respects to him while his body was lying in state at the National Arena.

Natural Mystic

Of course  no one has one and one half hours to devote to a video (anymore) but we would be seriously remiss if we did not offer a link to a Marley concert.

Ed Schultz: Postal Service Dying, Boehner Lies and FOX NEWS Doocy Disgusts

Enjoy while the caffeine kicks-in!!!!

Ed Schultz, MSNBC to go along with your Sumatra,  Kopi Luwak Indonesian, Kenya AA, Tanzanian, French Roast, Kona Coast, ‘Black Ivory’ [ Thai Elephant Dong],  Jamaica Blue Mountain, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, Costa Rican, Espresso,  Moyobama Peruvian Organic, Indonesian Blend, Coffee Latte, Kauai Blend (often bitter), Colombian Red Lips, or your Folgers 100% Colombian.

Coffees of the World

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Ed Schultz explores the background of a dying Postal Service. Is it not enough that we are mailing few ‘slow mail’ times. Why do we have a political party that has declared war on one of the nations most reliable, dependable, and longstanding institution?  The Postal Service works!

The GOP is most assuredly trying to kill another Democratic voting bloc.

Th following video is 15 minutes plus in length, but I wager you will not find an idle moment.

The party that consistently speaks about “strict interpretation” of the US Constitution bails on the one service clearly delineated in the historic document. Do you vote Republican?  ____________________ 

Ed tackles GOP phoniness that is simply stupefying   The following segment leaves me with thoughts of , “how could anyone vote for these people?”

 

We are fortunate Mitt Romney’s 47% of people who feel entitled to food, housing and healthcare  exercise our right to vote. Boehner and his party agreed to a deal in 2011, and what do they do. They typically backtrack and bob and weave to avoid their own avoidance strategy.

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Finally Ed address yet another disgusting example of Fox News entertainment and propaganda. Is the network via its chief idiot Doocy, attempt to compete with Comedy Central or SNL? 

Steve Doocy, did not write the segment that he quickly attempted to weasel out of in a tweet.  The writers at Fox should avoid attempts at humor and satire. Unless, Fox is using interns to develop material for the obviously dim-witted Doocy.