Rosa Parks: American Hero
Happy Birthday, Rosa Parks. Parks, The First Lady of the Civil Rights Movement, was arrested for not obeying bus driver, James Blake, when he ordered her to give up her seat for a white man. She was 42 years old at that time–nice that we can become activists in our 40s. This act of civil disobedience happened on December 1, 1955 and sparked the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott. At the time of her arrest, Parks was the secretary of her chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The bus boycott helped to end racial segregation in the south–the power of boycotting. I only wish I could say it ended racism today in the United States, but we all know that is painfully not true.
Happy Birthday, Betty Friedan. Friedan, a leading figure in the “Second Wave” women’s movement, is best known for her groundbreaking book, The Feminine Mystique. While The Feminine Mystique was groundbreaking and helped the women’s movement, it did not address equality for non-white women, nor did it include lesbians. Friedan later addresses these disparities in her book, The Fountain of Age and in a new introduction she included in subsequent publications of The Feminine Mystique. Friedan passed away on her birthday in 2006. Her voice is missed now especially when women’s rights are being attacked currently by our government.
Quotes of the day:
I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people. –Rosa Parks
The only way for a woman, as for a man, to find herself, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own. There is no other way. –Betty Friedan
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Social Justice For All 