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Ethical dilemma: Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks (1913–2005) is called the “mother
of the modern-day civil rights movement” for her decision to
keep her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus in 1955 even though the
law said she had to give it up to a white rider. Rosa was tired from
a long day of work, but that wasn’t why she kept her seat. Here’s
what she said about that day:
"That particular day that I decided was not the first time
I had trouble with that particular driver. He evicted me before,
because
I would
not go around to the back door after I was already onto the bus.
The evening that I boarded the bus, and noticed that he was the same driver,
I decided to get on anyway. I did not sit at the very front of the
bus; I took a seat with a man who was next to the window–the
first seat that was allowed for ‘colored’ people to sit
in. We were not disturbed until we reached the third stop after I
boarded the bus. At this point a few white people boarded the bus,
and one white man was left standing. When the driver noticed him
standing, he …told us to let the man have the seat. The others
all stood up. But the driver saw me still sitting there. He said
would I stand
up, and I said, ‘No, I will not.’ Then he said, 'I'll
have you arrested.’ And I told him he could do that… I
knew I was going to jail when the driver said he was going to have
me arrested. I didn’t feel good about going to jail, but I
was willing to go to let it be known that under this type of segregation,
black people had endured too much for too long.”
Rosa Parks’ sense of right and wrong made her decide to stay
in that seat and accept the consequences, which included losing her
job as well as being arrested. Her courage set off a nearly yearlong
boycott of Montgomery buses by African-Americans. The U.S. Supreme
Court ruled in 1956 that bus segregation in Montgomery was unconstitutional.
"Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue
in others."
– Rosa Parks
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