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Two different countries-two different times-two different persons of color!
South Africa towards the end of 19th Century and South Eastern United States
during the later half of the 20th Century. Neither Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
nor Rosa Parks had any thoughts that they were reformists and were even
conscious of the events that were to follow after their heroic stands. Today the
world has and is witnessing the transformation of concepts and concerns of man’s
inhumanity to man. Freedom is not what you say it is, freedom is what you must feel
within yourself and accord those inalienable rights to others. Such has been the
dynamics of the contributions of both Gandhi and Parks offered to the world
through the simple mechanism of non-violence appealing to the fundamental justice
of God.
Indians who had arrived as indentured labor in South Africa had faced
institutionalized segregation and discrimination from the start. Gandhi was to
become an unexpected victim of that unjust discrimination –an incident on the
train journey in South Africa. Here in the U.S. even during the later half of the
20th Century and even after the proclamation of Emancipation, African Americans
were still treated as inferior and as second class citizens. The blacks were facing
racial, social and economic discrimination. Rosa Parks, on her bus rides had
experienced these blatant racial inequities. Something inside them prodded Gandhi
and Parks to respond to these incidents with undaunting resolve. Their tolerance
was tested to a point when something inside them snapped and the souls within
rebelled against such gross injustice, oppression and racial inequities.
These incidents might have been ordinary but as Winston Churchill said, “Ordinary
events can turn ordinary persons into heroes”. For both Gandhi and Rosa Parks,
these events were to prove transformative, because by the sheer force of their
will power, they set in motion a revolution that reverberates the world over and
has sparked something monumental that remains an inspiration to liberation
movements everywhere. The young lawyer Gandhi had just arrived in South
Africa. On June 7, 1893, he was traveling by train from Durban to Pretoria, on a
legal assignment. In his The story of my experiments with Truth Gandhi recounts
what happened on that fateful journey.” A first class seat had been booked for
me…The train reached Petermaritzburg, the capital of Natal; at about 9
P.M…A white passenger entered and looked me up and down. He saw that I was a ‘colored’
man. This disturbed him. Out he went and came in again with one or two officials.
They all kept quiet, when another official came to me and said, “Come along, you
must go to the van compartment.” “But I have a first class ticket,” said I.” That
doesn’t matter,” rejoined the other. “I tell you, you must go to the van
compartment.”
“I tell you, I was permitted to travel in this compartment at Durban and I insist on
going on in it.”
“No, you won’t,” said the official. “You must leave this compartment or else I shall
have to call a police constable to push you out.”
“Yes, you may. I refuse to get out voluntarily.” The constable came. He took me by
the hand and pushed me out. My luggage was also taken out. I refused to go to the
other compartment and the train steamed away. I went and sat in the waiting
room…It was winter. Petermaritzburg being at a high altitude, the cold was
extremely bitter. My overcoat was in my baggage but I didn’t dare to ask for it
lest I should be insulted again, so I sat and shivered. There was no light in the
room…I began to think of my duty. Should I fight for my rights or go back to
India…It would be cowardice to run back to India without fulfilling my obligation.
The hardship to which I was subjected was superficial-only a symptom of the deep
disease of color prejudice. I should try, if possible, to root out the disease and
suffer hardships in the process.” It was to this crucial episode that Gandhi traced
the genesis of his great resolve to stay on in South Africa and fight for civil rights
by non-violent means.
On April 25, 1997, in presence of former South African Prime Minister,Nelson
Mandela, ‘The Freedom of Pietermaritzburg’ was conferred posthumously on
Mahatma Gandhi. India’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Gopal Krishna Gandhi
noted that Gandhi’s experience at the railway station was something like a second
birth.” When Gandhi was evicted from the train, an Indian visiting South Africa
fell, but when Gandhi rose, an Indian South African rose.”
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American Civil Rights activist, who was
dubbed by the US Congress as “Mother of the modern Civil Rights Movement”. On
December 1, 1955, she refused to obey a white Bus driver’s demand that she give
up her seat to a white passenger. Her subsequent arrest and trial ignited the
Montgomery Bus Boycott and her role in American history earned her an iconic
stature.
She was born on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. Till the age of eleven, she
was home schooled by her mother but later, family illness interrupted her high
school education. Under harsh Jim Crow laws, blacks and whites were segregated
in schools, restaurants, neighborhoods, public transportation and other areas.
Buses and trains allocated separate sections for blacks and whites. School bus
transportation was not for black school children.” The bus was among the first
ways I realized there was a black world and a white world” she had commented.
She married Raymond Parks in 1932 and at his urging completed her secondary
education. As a member of the NAACP (National Association for the advancement
of colored people), she played an active role in black voter registration. She was
elected volunteer Secretary to its President Edgar Nixon. She also worked as a
housekeeper and seamstress for a liberal and supportive white couple who
encouraged and sponsored her to Highlander Folk School.
In Montgomery, Alabama, first four rows of bus seats were reserved for white
people. The blacks who constituted more than 75% of the passengers had to sit in
the rear of the bus. The driver could move the ‘Colored section’ sign to
accommodate white passengers. Blacks had to pay the fare at the front door, then
disembark and re-enter at the rear entrance. If for any reason, anyone was
slightly slow, the bus would take off leaving the passenger behind. Rosa had her
fair share of mistreatment by bus drivers. “I did a lot of walking in Montgomery.”
In 1943, on a rainy day, a white bus- driver James Blake demanded that she
disembark and re-enter the back door. While she was doing this, she dropped her
purse. She momentarily sat in a white passenger’s seat to pick up her purse. The
bus driver was infuriated and as soon as she disembarked, he took off. Rosa had to
walk more than five miles on that cold and rainy night.
On Thursday, December 1, 1955, she worked full day at the Montgomery Fair
Department store. At six P.M., she boarded the bus which was being driven by
James Blake! She paid her fare and sat in the first row of seats for ‘colored’,
behind the ten seats for white passengers. Gradually the white seats began to fill
up. At the third stop, some more white passengers got on the bus. Blake moved the
‘Colored section’ sign and demanded that four blacks vacate their seats for the
whites. “Y’all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats.” The
three black men sitting next to Rosa moved behind. Rosa moved too but toward the
window seat.” Why don’t you stand up?” asked Blake. Rosa recounted in her
autobiography,” I felt a determination cover my body like a quilt on a winter night”
She responded, “I don’t think I should have to stand up.” Blake said, “Well, if you
don’t stand up, I’m going to have to call the Police and have you arrested.” Rosa
said, “You may do that.” She was arrested by a Police Officer, tried; found guilty
and fined 14 dollars. Later, when Rosa Parks was asked why she acted as she did,
she replied, “I would have to know for once and for all what rights I had as a
human being and a citizen of Montgomery.” In her autobiography, My Story, she
enlarged further,” People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was
tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically…No, the only tired I was, was
tired of giving in.” Rosa never forgot what she was told at Highlander Folk School”
You are a child of God. You can make a difference.” Her arrest led to a 381 day
boycott of the Montgomery Bus System, under the leadership of young Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. The segregationists retaliated by acts of violence, torching black
Churches, bombing homes of black Church Ministers including that of Dr.Martin
Luther King. Like Gandhi’s famous Dandi March, the unflinching boycott
internationalized the awareness of racial discrimination in the US. Later Dr. King
wrote in his book, Stride toward Freedom, …Actually, no one can understand the
action of Mrs. Parks unless he realizes that the cup of endurance runs over, and
the human personality cries out, “I can take it no longer.” The boycott culminated
in the 1964 Civil Rights Act and an end to segregation.
In later years, Rosa Parks co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for
Self Development in 1987. Among the many honors and accolades bestowed upon
her was the Rosa Parks Peace Prize in 1994 in Stockholm, Sweden, Presidential
Medal of Freedom, in 1996, and United State’s highest civilian honor, the
Congressional Gold Medal in 1999. She was the second black person and the first
woman to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The King Center in Atlanta has a
room honoring Rosa Parks.
The African-American U.S. Representative, John Conyers said of her, “You treated
her with deference because she was so quiet, so serene, just a very special person.
There is only one Rosa Parks.” Among the countless persons she inspired was South
Africa’s former President, Nelson Mandela, who on meeting with her said, “You
sustained me while I was in prison all those years.” She has left an enduring legacy.
She felt that young people were in danger of taking their rights for granted.
Because the younger generation has been shielded from what we have suffered, it
seems to have a complacent attitude.”…We must try to give them inspiration,
incentive and a will to study our heritage. Without vision, the people will perish, and
without courage, and inspiration, dreams will die-the dream of freedom and peace.”
There is a long way to go in eradicating racial injustice. Each one of us must
remember Gandhi and Rosa Parks and resolve to stand up when the crunch time
comes.
Courtesy: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks
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