Legacy

"I think that she, as the mother of the new civil rights movement, has left an impact not just on the nation, but on the world," U.S. Rep. John Conyers.Because of Rosa Parks and her refusing to get out her seat she has changed history. She was a real apostle of the nonviolence movement. What most people do not know about Rosa Parks is that she was a trained civil rights worker who knew the significance of staying in her front seat and not giving it up to a white man. The new Children’s Wing tells youngsters that things just don’t happen in history, people make things happen. People come to realize that they can make a difference just as Rosa Parks, E.D. Nixon, Joanne Robinson, Fred Gray, Claudette Colvin, Georgia Gilmore and many others made a difference following in the footsteps of Dred Scott, Harriet Tubman, Homer Plessey and others who had gone before. The contemporary struggles for justice can learn from the ways the civil rights movement overcame a media boycott and moved hitherto immovable forces. One must believe there is always a way to produce the human spark for a broader public morality and a deeper commitment to a more just society. The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement died October 24, 2005. Her dignified defiance in the face of segregation helped America and the world understand the power of nonviolent protest to create a more just society. Rosa Parks’ legacy that she left behind was equal rights between people.