Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Rosa Parks
We take a lot for granted.
At age 55. I am able to remember a very much different world in which the people we called “colored” endured state enforced second-class citizenship.
Well-bred decent people called them “colored,” others had harsher names for Negroes. Some of the language used to describe black folks was unimaginably hateful and reflective of the deepest bigotry. Most southerners were kinder people, but the loudest voices set much of the social tone of the day. Too many people of conscience went along with the accepted norms of discrimination for too long. Rosa Parks put the first dent in thick heavy armor of racism.
Segregation was a political symbol of white supremacy which was the ready tool of skillful political demagogues. Despicable hate-filled warts like Eugene “Bull” Connor, Birmingham’s bigoted sheriff, and Georgia Governor Lester Maddox come to mind immediately as the kind of guys who take to the politics of hate and division like ducks to water. Fellows like George Wallace and Orval Faubus played the race card for political advantage. One way or the other, it was an era of the rawest political manipulation.
When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on that Montgomery city bus, she was certainly taking a risk. Many political empires were built on the basis of playing to the economic and racial insecurities of ignorant underclass white folks and “uppity” black had to be put in their place. You have probably seen old news films of the fire hoses, the police dogs and the gassings.
There is a National Jim Crow Museum that has the artifacts and history of post- Civil War America. For most of a hundred years, the federal government had consistently failed to pass and enforce legislation to protect the rights of former slaves. The Montgomery bus boycott was not the first such event, but it was important in modern times. There were protests even in my hometown early in the last century. The condition of the country 50 years ago is hard to imagine today, especially since the mood of the country seems to be denial of any unpleasant facts.
I vividly remember separate drinking fountains for whites and blacks. There were separate waiting rooms in all sorts of public places, including train stations. On the railroad, black passengers could sit anywhere if they were going out of state, but there was a “Jim Crow” car for “coloreds” traveling in the same state. Segregation was a useless and silly social ritual whose only purpose was to prolong the state sanctioned domination of African-Americans by individuals who could never earn their way to the top except by intimidation.
False teachers, greedy corporations, and ambitious politicians easily mislead weak human beings. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
At age 55. I am able to remember a very much different world in which the people we called “colored” endured state enforced second-class citizenship.
Well-bred decent people called them “colored,” others had harsher names for Negroes. Some of the language used to describe black folks was unimaginably hateful and reflective of the deepest bigotry. Most southerners were kinder people, but the loudest voices set much of the social tone of the day. Too many people of conscience went along with the accepted norms of discrimination for too long. Rosa Parks put the first dent in thick heavy armor of racism.
Segregation was a political symbol of white supremacy which was the ready tool of skillful political demagogues. Despicable hate-filled warts like Eugene “Bull” Connor, Birmingham’s bigoted sheriff, and Georgia Governor Lester Maddox come to mind immediately as the kind of guys who take to the politics of hate and division like ducks to water. Fellows like George Wallace and Orval Faubus played the race card for political advantage. One way or the other, it was an era of the rawest political manipulation.
When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on that Montgomery city bus, she was certainly taking a risk. Many political empires were built on the basis of playing to the economic and racial insecurities of ignorant underclass white folks and “uppity” black had to be put in their place. You have probably seen old news films of the fire hoses, the police dogs and the gassings.
There is a National Jim Crow Museum that has the artifacts and history of post- Civil War America. For most of a hundred years, the federal government had consistently failed to pass and enforce legislation to protect the rights of former slaves. The Montgomery bus boycott was not the first such event, but it was important in modern times. There were protests even in my hometown early in the last century. The condition of the country 50 years ago is hard to imagine today, especially since the mood of the country seems to be denial of any unpleasant facts.
I vividly remember separate drinking fountains for whites and blacks. There were separate waiting rooms in all sorts of public places, including train stations. On the railroad, black passengers could sit anywhere if they were going out of state, but there was a “Jim Crow” car for “coloreds” traveling in the same state. Segregation was a useless and silly social ritual whose only purpose was to prolong the state sanctioned domination of African-Americans by individuals who could never earn their way to the top except by intimidation.
False teachers, greedy corporations, and ambitious politicians easily mislead weak human beings. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
