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I Love This Picture of Rosa Parks

Thu, 07/07/2011 - 08:54
Submitted by Carlin Ross

Rosa Parks ignited the Civil Rights Movement.  And it wasn't just about her refusal to sit in the back of the bus.  She organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott.   

Black women were taking the bus to work and getting raped - they decided to organize a boycott with Rosa at the helm.  Rosa was working as a secretary for the NAACP and her husband was a civil rights activist.  She approached the Black ministers (including Martin Luther King) about participating but they decided NOT to join the boycott. 

It was a huge success - the Civil Rights Movement was born and it was born by women.  But it was time for the men to muscle in and take over the movement now that it had momentum.  That's why I love this picture.  It's one of the only pictures of Rosa at a rally.  I wonder what she was thinking.  She had to be happy that the movement was off the ground but it also had to burn a bit.  

Rosa Parks single-handedly changed the world.  She is a feminist icon and we honor her.

How amazing would it have been if black women ran with Civil Rights and ultimately joined the feminist movement?    Talk about female liberation.  We underestimate just how powerful we are and how much we have to give the world. 

Sex, Politics & More Sex

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True, when your half the

Thu, 07/07/2011 - 09:19
Jake E

True, when your half the population of the world that is powerful, and when everyones on line in some way be it computer or phone all 3 and half billion women will know that. So actually will minorities like cross gendered and find out how numerous they are and be aware of how many supporters they have. Anyway thanks Carlin for dong a bit to Raise Rosa Parks profile. 

Love this!

Thu, 07/07/2011 - 20:42
Kait (not verified)

And all of your politically- and culturally-relevant posts and photos!  Thanks for keeping us all up-to-date!

Women were key players in the Civil Rights Movement.

Fri, 07/08/2011 - 00:32
lisaoar

You might want to brush up on your civil rights history. Rosa Parks helped organize the Montgomary Bus Boycotts but it was not just her brainchild. Many women in Montgomary got together to organize the boycott. Rosa refusing to move out of her seat was planned months in advance and she was not the first woman to do so. Claudette Colvin did so before Rosa but the leaders did not use her not moving to protest segregation because she was a teenager and pregnant. The leaders of the movement, who were mostly all women, chose to use Rosa because she was an older women. Women were the ones who kept the bus boycotts lasting 13 months and white women helped by picking up the black women who worked for them. 

Women were key players in all of the movements of the civil rights movement. We only remember the big names like Martin Luther King Jr. because he became the spokesperson for the movement. A good chuck of the civil rights organizations were founded by women or cofounded. The freedom rides were lead by women. Diane Nash was one of the leaders of the organization. Desegregation schools was spearheaded in Little Rock Arkansas. She worked with the Little Rock 9 and about half of the students were girls. Women were involved with SNCC [student nonviolent cordinating committee] and played key roles in the Freedom Summer which helped people register to vote. Men worked with women in the movement but the media mostly focused on the men of the movement because of sexism. Yes, there was sexism in the movement but women could hold their own.

Rosa Parks didn't single handedly change the world, there were many women behind her supporting her and organizing to make what she did possible. By only focusing on Rosa Parks, we are ignoring the other women who played key roles in the movement. 

Black women did join feminist organization but white women marginalized them so they created their own organizations. Black women were in the second [and third] wave feminist movement but we do no talk about their contributions because of the racism still in the feminist movment today. 

I agree completely with

Fri, 07/08/2011 - 02:40
dc23 (not verified)

I agree completely with lisaoar. It's really annoying seeing that white women act like we haven't done anything in terms of feminism and racial equality. What white women need to understand is our blackness and womanhood are connected. Racial equality is part of the fight in getting treated like a human, never mind the kind of treatment white women expect. Black women attempted to march with women in the suffrage movement only to be told their blackness was enough to not be allowed to participate. White women need to stop patting themselves on the back and realize they are completely ignore the contributions black women have made in history. Under much more brutual and dangerous conditions. And lisaoar also laid out everything about Rosa Parks and how she came to become an icon. If you don't know that, why should you be able to even write about this? Writing like this is exactly the condescending shit that turns us off from "your" movement. We have been doing feminist things since slavery days. Really.

Um, Black women did a lot

Fri, 07/08/2011 - 08:16
predisposedcatfighter (not verified)

Um, Black women did a lot more for civil rights than just sit at the back of the bus. Perhaps you should have some PoC cover topics like this. Because this is really unacceptable. 

"Black women DID join the feminist movement but they were marginalized by the white women in the movement who wanted to specifically address their issues. They did not want to address the racism within the movement and when they were confronted by it, they ignored it. Suffragists, Alice Paul, stated race was not a feminist issue. She also worked tirelessly to get the Equal Rights Amendment, which she wrote, passed. The ERA was part of the second wave movement. Within the suffrage movement/first wave, black women were pushed to the side and created their own suffrage organizations. Ida B Wells went head to head with Alice during the Parade in Washington because Alice insisted the black women march in the back so they wouldn’t upset the southern white women. Ida B Wells was devastated by Alice Pauls racism, even though she was not surprised, and ended up marching in the front anyways as a ‘fuck you.’ Black women called white suffragists out on their racism many times and white women ignored them. Same thing happened in the second wave movement and is still happening today. Black women in the second wave movement created their own organizations so they could focus on the issues that affected them and their communities. Third wave feminist have gotten better at addressing racism and intersectionality but the movement is still problematic. Your [post] just proves how they are still being marginalized by the movement in 2011 and how their work/activism is over looked."

that was my point - Rosa

Fri, 07/08/2011 - 08:56
Carlin Ross

that was my point - Rosa Parks contributions were ignored. 

I was fantasizing about how different things could be if white women and black women were united under feminism.  White feminists didn't include women of color and referred to lesbians as the "lavender menace".

It was a big mistake that I'm hoping we can correct.

THANK you.  Ignoring the role

Fri, 07/08/2011 - 09:09
Doug (not verified)

THANK you. 
Ignoring the role of black women in the struggle is unfortunate, especially when it's a quick google search away! This sort of marginalization is the reason that nobody hears about that role in the first place.

If that's your point why does

Fri, 07/08/2011 - 09:14
Tressie (not verified)

If that's your point why does your verbiage ask why black women didn't run with the feminist movement? IF that was your point the question would be why wasn't the white feminist movement more supportive of black women in their quest for civil rights. Do you see the difference? Your verbiage puts the onus on black women. What commenters are showing you is that black women did indeed "run" with it but that white feminists shut down black feminist participation.

when I said "if Black women

Fri, 07/08/2011 - 10:57
Carlin Ross

when I said "if Black women ran with Civil Rights" I meant what if they were the visible leaders and it all fed back into feminism: women united.

I really didn't want to attack or belittle anyone in my post.  Yes, white feminists could have been inclusive and galvanized the movement but I wanted to celebrate Rosa Parks in my post. 

My last statement was more of a wish

The point is  black women

Fri, 07/08/2011 - 13:02
dc23 (not verified)

The point is  black women were visible leaders in our communities and Rosa Parks wasn't the only one. The tired white washed story of Rosa Parks and her celebration has been worn out. Their are plently of other black women who have done plenty of things for both movements. We knew about them. Apparently you didn't. Your comments are really condescending and your "wish" is a false one because it has already come true. Either you know black women were involved with feminism and were rejected by white women (while still continuing to carry their own feminist torch) or you didn't know and were wishing they did? See how that makes no sense? Lots of backstepping on a poorly researched article wishing for something that they didn't have the time to research has already happened and continues to happen. If black feminists aren't in your view, maybe you just need to start looking harder. Cause we were there then and we are still here now. 

Carlin,  Black women were

Fri, 07/08/2011 - 14:55
lisaoar

Carlin, 

Black women were visible leaders in the Civil Rights Movement. Women were spearheading many of the organizations from the Civil Rights Movement. Women organized the bus boycotts. Rosa Parks was part of that movement but it was not her alone who spearheaded it. She has become an icon from the movement, who everyone knows, but she is not the only woman who was involved. The Little Rock 9 in Arkansas were lead by a woman, not man. Diane Nash was a key player and one of the leaders of the Freedom Rides which desegregated the south. Just to name a couple women who you can look up because they also worked with many key women in the movement. Women were in the movement and having leadership and non-leadership roles. Please learn about the women who were in the movement before saying they weren't there. It is overlooking all the work women have done and continue to do to fight for racial equality. 

Again, Black women were feminist and 'ran with civil rights.' Black women created Black Feminism and Womanism (two seperate movements/theories) in response to white women marginalizing them and abusing them. Black women have been feminism since the beginning of the movement but have been ignored by white women. White women chose to ignore their contributions and still do that today. I recommend looking into the history of feminism before writing about it. It was not just a white womans movement. 

i would recommend you at

Sat, 07/09/2011 - 00:21
so_treu (not verified)

i would recommend you at least hip yourself to the book "At the Dark
End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance--A New History of
the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power." from the amazon.com description:
"Long before Rosa Parks became famous for resisting Jim Crow laws, she
was engaged in advocating for social justice for black women who were
the victims of sexual violence at the hands of white men. Historian
McGuire aims to rewrite the history of the civil rights movement by
highlighting sexual violence in the broader context of racial injustice
and the fight for freedom. Parks worked as an investigator for the NAACP
branch office in Montgomery, Alabama, specializing in cases involving
black women who had been sexually assaulted by white men––cases that
often went untried and were the political opposite of the allegations of
black men raping white women ending in summary lynching with or without
trials. McGuire traces the history of several rape cases that triggered
vehement resistance by the NAACP and other groups, including the 1975
trial of Joan Little, who killed a white jailer who sexually assaulted
her. Despite the long tradition of dismissing charges brought by blacks
against whites, several of the cases ended in convictions, as black
women asserted their right to be treated justly."
black women both during and before the Civil Rights Movement were organizing around "feminist" issues. i think the better question is why didn't white women join them in their efforts, rather than why didn't black women join a movemen they were systemically shut out of.

total agreement

Sat, 07/09/2011 - 08:15
Carlin Ross

total agreement

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