She stood up by staying seated

ROSA PARKS,  CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST (unwitting though)

 There are some people who are accidentally thrust into history books. Rosa Parks was one of them. A resident of Montgomery, Alabama, in the American south at a time when racial segregation rules applied in virtually all spheres of life, Parks made history by refusing to give up her seat on a bus for White passengers. On December 1, 1955 she had boarded a bus in downtown Montgomery after work and sat in the seats reserved for Blacks. But when several White passengers boarded the bus and the White-only seats became full, the bus driver asked Parks and three other blacks to get up.
   Parks refused to comply and was arrested. She was charged with violating segregation laws and released on bail the same day. This would spark off what is now known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

 Rosa Parks would later write, “People always say that I did n’t give up my seat because I was tired but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

 The day of Parks’ trial marked the beginning of a boycott of buses for 382 days by the Black community. The case would eventually reach the US Supreme Court where the court outlawed racial segregation on buses. The boycott was also the launching pad for the best known black civil rights activist Martin Luther King.

 For her singular act of courage Parks was later dubbed (sic) the mother of the modern-day civil rights movement When she died in 2005, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice paid the ultimate tribute to Parks. If it weren't for Parks, Rice said, she would never have had the opportunity to become secretary of state.

posted by Ajit Lakshmiratan