11 of the Most Memorable Acts of Civil Disobedience in History by Lawrence Reed

Recommendable!

I am glad, Rosa Parks, though represented by a picture, was only mentioned quasi as a footnote in this list.

11 of the Most Memorable Acts of Civil Disobedience in History - Foundation for Economic Education

Martin Luther King Jr: The Many Trials of America's Civil Rights Icon

Very recommendable! Video does not fail to mention the first assassination attempt by a black woman, MLKs Marxist leanings or links, his Vietnam War protests ...

I have blogged multiple times about MLK and also about Rosa Parks just click on the corresponding labels below!

Martin Luther King Jr. On Rosa Parks

A Person Of High Character And Integrity

On December 5, 1955, Martin Luther King Jr. said in a public speech about Rosa Parks following (emphasis added):

“Just the other day, just last Thursday to be exact, one of the finest citizens in Montgomery--(Amen) not one of the finest Negro citizens (That's right), but one of the finest citizens in Montgomery--was taken from a bus (Yes) and carried to jail and arrested (Yes) because she refused to get up to give her seat to a white person. (yes, that's right) Now the press would have us believe that she refused to leave a reserved section for Negroes (Yes), but I want you to know this evening that there is no reserved section. (All right) The law has never been clarified at that point. (Hell no) Now I think I speak with legal authority--not that I have any legal authority, but I think I speak with legal authority behind me--(All right) that the law, the ordinance, the city ordinance has never been totally clarified. (That's right)

Mrs. Rosa Parks is a fine person. (Well,) And, since it had to happen, I'm happy that it happened to a person like Mrs. Parks, (Yes) for nobody can doubt the boundless outreach of her integrity. (Sure enough) Nobody can doubt the height of her character (Yes), nobody can doubt the depth of her Christian commitment and devotion to the teachings of Jesus. (All right) And I'm happy, since it had to happen, it happened to a person that nobody can call a disturbing factor in the community. (All right) Mrs. Parks is a fine Christian person, unassuming, and yet there is integrity and character there. And just because she refused to get up, she was arrested.” (Source: “Address to the first Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) Mass Meeting” see full text here)

The Rosa Parks Event

The Rosa Parks event was well planned and organized plus Rosa Parks was planted on the bus to do what she did.

I would assume, that MLK was also fully aware of this. Thus, his long speech about Rosa Parks is somewhat disingenuous in my view.

You find my related blog posts here and here.

Why Is Rosa Parks So Much More Famous Than Irene Morgan

Irene Morgan Who?

Read up on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_Morgan

Salient excerpt from Wikipedia (Emphasis added):

“[Irene Morgan] was an African-American woman who was arrested inMiddlesex County, Virginia, in 1944 for refusing to give up her seat on an interstate bus according to a state law on segregation.

She consulted with attorneys to appeal her conviction. With the help ofWilliam H. Hastie, the former governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands and later a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and Thurgood Marshall, legal counsel of the NAACP, her case, Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 328 U.S. 373 (1946), was taken to the United States Supreme Court. In 1946 in a landmark decision, the Court ruled that the Virginia law was unconstitutional, as the Commerce clause protected interstate traffic.”

Comments

Irene Morgan refused to give up her seat 9 years earlier than Rosa Parks. Her refusal became a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court not Rosa Park’s.

Ms. Parks was apparently also preceded by about two years by a Women’s Army Corps private Sarah Keys whose case also led to a landmark decision by the Interstate Commerce Commission. Ms. Keys is largely unknown as well relative to Ms. Parks, if I am not mistaken.

Perhaps Ms. Morgan Was Too Feisty To Become Famous

Wikipedia describes Ms. Morgan’s arrest as follows (Emphasis added):

“In 1944, the 27-year-old Irene Morgan was traveling to Baltimore, Maryland when she was arrested and jailed in Virginia for refusing to sit in a segregated section on an interstate Greyhound bus. ...

The bus driver stopped in Middlesex County, Virginia, and summoned the sheriff. When he tried to arrest Morgan, she tore up the arrest warrant, kicked the sheriff in the groin, and fought with the deputy who tried to pull her off the bus. She was convicted of violating state law for segregation on buses and other public transportation. Morgan pled guilty to the charge of resisting arrest and was fined $100. However, she refused the guilty plea for violating Virginia's segregation law.”

Previous, Related Blog Posts

Here.

Rosa Parks: Was It Planned And Staged?

A Seamstress Who Was Too Tired?

I have to admit I do not know her story and what followed in great detail. I was not raised in the USA. However, I find it quite peculiar that she is portrayed officially, publicly, by politicians and in the media as a simple, humble seamstress, who just was too tired after work to get up from her seat on that fateful day (e.g. Michael Moore’s letter at www.michaelmoore.com).

Affiliated With The NAACP

Following her death, I hear and read bits and pieces dispersed over different sources that contradict this neat picture. Is it true that she worked or was associated with the NAACP or similarly organizations long before she got on the bus? Is it true that she was trained or had attended civil rights education before that day? Is it true that the white man sitting behind her on a famous photography was actually identified as a newspaper reporter? Is it true that she was accompanied by a photographer?

Truth Over Hagiography

Of course, I do not mean at all to diminish her achievement or the struggle for civil rights. I have great respect for that, but I do mind not to mention that her action was possibly well planned and staged. Truth and honesty not fantasy or romanticism tend to further the human cause! Or what is wrong with the truth in this case? What is actually the ulterior motive behind that neat story?

Post Script

This blog is a repost.