CARLTON FLETCHER: Looking for a modern-day Rosa Parks

“They’re beating plowshares into swords For this tired old man that we elected king. Armchair warriors often fail, And we’ve been poisoned by these fairy tales.”

— Don Henley

Over the July 4th holiday, I had an opportunity to watch a documentary that, partially, focused on the life of Rosa Parks and the stand she took that led to the Montgomery (Alabama) Bus Boycott.

Parks’ story has become an iconic part of the story of the national civil rights movement, and rightly so. But her story goes well beyond the simple refusal to give up a seat on a bus to a white man, as the law ordered. What followed her action is as important – and maybe even moreso –  than the actions of this one brave woman.

The city of Montgomery passed a law that said front seats in public transportation were reserved for white riders. If any black rider was seated in the front half of the bus and a white rider got on, the black rider was ordered to move to the back of the bus.

The year was 1955, and while the civil rights movement was slowly building momentum in the United States, laws such as the one enacted in Montgomery were common. And while many individuals hoping to tarnish Parks’ legacy have claimed over the years that she “only refused to give up her seat because she was tired after a day’s work,” Parks – who was an active participant in the growing civil rights movement – denied that claim until the time of her death, declaring, “Yes, I was tired. Tired of the way black people were being treated.”

In the aftermath of Parks’ famous refusal to give up her seat – she was arrested and fined $14 – there grew a movement that, in retrospect, is perhaps one of the most courageous and impressive of the national battle for civil rights.

Parks’ arrest led to a boycott of public transportation in Montgomery, a brave movement that proved to weary African Americans that they had weapons of their own that they could use in their quest for equal opportunity under the law. For a little more than a year, black citizens in Montgomery refused to utilize public transportation in the city, costing the city millions of dollars it had budgeted for that year-plus.

Just as Parks proved to be a brave face of the resistance to Jim Crow laws, the brave – and unsung – black heroes of the city who were inconvenienced considerably but refused to ride and pay their fares to the city’s public transportation system deserve as much credit as Parks. They had to find alternate means of transportation, and many of them ended up walking to and from their jobs rather than give in and pay into the racist transportation system.

And they stuck to their convictions, despite the hardships, for a little more than a year. Finally, after realizing the gaping holes in their budget brought on by the refusal of Montgomery blacks to pay for rides so long as they were treated as second- or third-class citizens, city leaders gave in, and in late 1956, public transportation in the city was formally integrated.

I thought about Parks and those brave boycotters – and others like them, some even here in Albany during the 1960s – as I dejectedly read the news feeds coming out of our nation’s capital during the holiday. People of all political persuasions were regulars on news shows, blogs, public appearances and just about every other form of media possible, complaining about the blundering attempts of the Trump administration to tear down the foundations of the documents that made our country great and remake it in their own evil image.

Sadly, though, I noticed that, except for an occasional mass protest that initially left participants feeling relatively safe – that is, until federal agents, especially ICE agents, started killing unarmed and peaceful U.S. citizens in the streets – there has been little organized resistance to Trump and his administration’s heavy-handed attempts to run this country as their own private fiefdom.

Where, I wondered, are the people willing to take a stand against this modern-day tyranny? Where are the people willing to give up some of their creature comforts – as the citizens of Montgomery did – in an effort to right institutional wrongs? Where are the Rosa Parkses of the 21st century?

I know, I know. With the current administration using “payback” tactics as a means of governing and illegally withholding funds to show groups who anger the president that he’s “the boss,” speaking out or taking actions against the ruling elite actually does come with elements of danger. But as the people of Montgomery showed the world, when enough people stand up for what’s right and are brave enough to take on the blowback, good things can happen.

No, the man sitting in the White House will not “back down,” even if the whole world knows he should. He’s too entitled and has been given the power by an ever-shrinking part of the population that says, no matter what inanity he speaks or does, “He’s doing what we voted for him to do.” … even as the world crumbles around them.

Maybe there are no more Rosa Parkses in this country willing to do what needs to be done to stop a corrupt government. But the more people are willing to speak out – and even stand up to the tyranny – the more likely the cowards in Congress and on the Supreme Court will find the courage to stop this madman and the sycophants in his inner circle before it’s too late.

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected].