The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (2022) - full transcript

-We're back, and let's meet
our next team of challengers.

Number one. What is
your name, please?

-My name is Rosa Parks.

-Number two.

-My name is Rosa Parks.

-And number three.

-My name is Rosa Parks.

-Once again, panel,
these three ladies

all claim to be civil
rights champion Rosa Parks,

and let's start the questioning
with Kitty Carlisle.

-Number two, what led up to this
glorious moment on that bus?



-How did you feel at
the moment of arrest?

That bell tells us

the time is up.
And now, of course,

it's time to vote whoever,

in your opinion, is
the real Rosa Parks.

-I voted for number two,

and it's just
based on a feeling.

She just has that gentleness,

I think, that would
allow to be defiant.

- Okay.
- Any one of these three ladies

could have had the courage,
and I'm ashamed to say,

I don't really know
which one it really is,

but I voted for number two.

-All right. And Nipsey,
who got your vote?



-Well, I'll have to
disqualify myself.

I know Mrs. Parks,

and I was one of the
entertainers on that show

between Selma and Montgomery,

but Ms. Rosa Parks
is 10 foot tall,

and she's a legend and a hero

in the democracy of
the United States,

not just among black people.

-And now, will the real
Rosa Parks please stand up?

-The first lady of the
movement, Mrs. Rosa Parks.

Raise your hand.

-Reverend Abernathy and all
of my brothers and sisters

and my children, because I have
been called the mother of this,

we are not in a struggle
of black against white,

but wrong and right.

-Rosa Parks is arguably one of
the most celebrated Americans

of the 20th century

and arguably one of the
most kind of distorted

and misunderstood.

-You see before you now

a victim of all that has
been perpetrated against one

to make us less than human.

-Yes, we all understand that she
went and sat down on the bus.

The narrow narrative of her
just on one day did something...

We need to dispel that.

-I am handicapped in every way,

but I am expected to be
a first-class citizen.

I want to be one.

Of course, last
few days in Selma,

actually I almost
lost the faith.

And I said to myself
I could not come here,

seeing what had happened in
Selma, armed with only love.

-If they could see her

talking about the
Republic of New Afrika.

If they could see her out there
with the Panthers in Oakland.

If they could see her in all
of these fragrant varieties

of her personality,

then they would understand
the real Rosa Parks,

but they might have been
just a little bit frightened.

-Yeah

-Please, Lord, won't
you bind my hands?

'Cause I don't
want to hurt nobody

Oh, Lord, won't
you guide my soul?

'Cause I don't
want to act ungodly

Oh, Lord, won't
you help my soul?

These heathens want
to steal my faith

I really need some self-control

I'm trying not to
fall from grace

Lord, please, won't
you help my soul?

Come strengthen my faith

Strengthen my faith

-Yeah

-"I have never been
an integrationist.

Even when there was segregation,

there was plenty of
integration in the South,

but it was for the
benefit and convenience

of the white person, not us.

It is the discontinuation
of oppression

for all people
who are oppressed.

All people should
be treated equally,

regardless of race,
religion, or nationality."

-As a very small
child, I had to hide

from the Ku Klux Klan to
keep from getting killed

or thinking I was
going to be killed.

My family were
deprived of the land

that they owned and
driven off of it

after they'd worked
and paid for it.

I did not have the opportunity
to attend school as many have.

-The early 20th century,

this is the period that is
often referred to as the Nadir,

the low point, in
African American history.

And some people even argue

that it's a period
worse than slavery.

-"By the time I was 6, I
was old enough to realize

that we were actually not free.

The Ku Klux Klan was riding
through the black community,

burning churches,
killing people.

I later learned
that it was because

African American soldiers were
returning from World War I

and acting as if they
deserved equal rights

because they had
served their country.

At one point, the
violence was so bad

that my grandfather kept his
gun close by at all times.

My grandfather was
going to defend his home

whatever happened.

I wanted to see him
shoot that gun."

-She would be telling
me about the grandfather

and how he wasn't
afraid of white people.

He looked white, but he
wasn't afraid of white people.

-"My grandfather's father
was a white plantation owner

named John Edwards, and his
mother was a slave housekeeper.

My grandfather was
close to white.

She died when my
grandfather was very young,

and then John Edwards died, too.

An overseer took
over the plantation,

and he disliked my grandfather,

treated him so badly that
he had a very intense,

passionate hatred
for white people.

My grandfather was the one
who instilled in my mother

that you don't put up with
bad treatment from anybody.

It was passed down
almost in our genes."

-He had his shotgun ready, and
I sat up with him all night,

and I still have
a chronic insomnia

from some of the things I lived
through when I was a child.

-If you were out there
on guard at night,

you ain't making no noise.

She understood you protected
what was important to you.

And Rosa got the idea
that, "I want to change

that what makes me have

to need to be protected."

White supremacy was the threat.

Her brother was, I think, two
and a half or something younger.

-"Sylvester followed
me around all the time.

He was always into mischief,

but I was very
protective of him."

-They were coming home one day

and were being taunted
by a young white boy.

-"I would rather be lynched
than say 'I don't like it.'

I cried bitterly that
I would be lynched

rather than be run over by them.

They could get the rope ready
for me any time they wanted

to do their lynching."

-We got to understand
that about this woman,

that she was a
soldier from birth,

that she was going to fight you.

-Her quietness was
actually her strength.

And she would let you know
if she didn't agree with you,

but she would let you know
without raising her voice.

-"My mother taught me
quite a bit about reading.

She taught me the alphabet
and figures and counting

before I even started
going to school.

Just a very short distance from
where I lived was a new school.

It was without question
for the white students.

They had bus accommodations,
and we never did.

I'd see the bus pass
by my house every day.

At one time, I had to walk
at least 3 miles to school.

The bus was among the first ways

I realized there was a black
world and a white world.

The schools in the South
were the best training ground

for teaching Negro inferiority
and white supremacy.

A young child starting to
school could very soon learn

that the white children
went to beautiful,

well-appointed and
equipped school buildings,

while Negro children
went to roughly built

uncomfortable shacks
with no desks,

but rough plank benches."

-Education for black
kids ends at sixth grade.

Her mother finds
that unacceptable,

so her mother sends her
to a school in Montgomery

called Ms. White's,

and a number of the women
who go to Ms. White's

will end up being active

in Montgomery civil
rights community.

-"I learned quite
a bit about sewing.

What I learned at Ms. White's
school was that I was a person

with dignity and self-respect,

and I should not
set my sights lower

than anybody else just
because I was black.

Raymond Parks was the first
real activist I ever met.

He was a longtime
member of the NAACP."

-He was the first man I had met

since the death
of my grandfather

that was not ready to
accept what we call bowing

and scraping, and
"yes-yes'ing."

-"He was in his late 20s

and working as a barber
in the black barbershop

in downtown Montgomery."

-A mutual friend introduces Rosa

and Raymond Parks
to one another.

Rosa's initially not interested.

-"I thought he was too white.

I had an aversion to white men

with the exception
of my grandfather,

and Raymond Parks is
very light-skinned."

-Her experience with
light-skinned black men

is that they're usually
politically timid.

Couldn't be further from the
truth, right, about Raymond.

-"Parks... Everyone
called him Parks...

Would tell me about his problems

growing up being very
fair complected."

-He's also the
owner of a red Nash.

Raymond starts to
talk about politics,

and immediately she's captivated
by his authority on matters

that are relevant to the
black freedom struggle, right?

Particularly at this time

the Scottsboro Boys' case.

-He was very much concerned
with the young black boys

who were being railroaded

to the electric chair.

-Eight black
teenagers and one boy.

They're on this train
in search of work.

They get into a scuffle
with some white men.

-There were two white
women on the train

who were arrested as well,
and to protect themselves,

they claimed that they were
raped by these black boys.

-The Scottsboro Boys
are very quickly tried,

and all but the
youngest one, who's 12,

are sentenced to death.

-"I thought it was awful that
they were condemned to die

for a crime they did not commit.

It demonstrated how little
regard segregationists

had for the lives
of black people

and the lengths they would
go to keep us in fear."

-I would want to go along
with him to the meetings

and hear the discussions,

but he always said
it was too dangerous.

-"The police were
always on the lookout

for people to intimidate.

The police killed two men who
were connected with the group

Parks was with, people
Parks knew well."

-People were certainly
concerned with being killed,

being imprisoned.

Raymond embraced
armed self-defense

during the Scottsboro campaign.

-He and I stayed up for many a
night and didn't sleep at all.

When he left home, I did not
know whether he'd be brought in

or lying in the
street dead someplace.

-One of the biggest
myths in the history

of the black freedom movement

is that nonviolence is
the default position.

That's not true. It's
the other way around.

And Rosa Parks grew up
in a movement culture

in which armed self-defense
was simply taken for granted.

-Mother Parks
supported self-defense

because she would not
have been a supporter

of the Republic of New
Afrika had she not been.

-The Republic of New Afrika

is attempting to
abide by the law.

Our weapons are all defensive.

We wouldn't carry them if
we were not in the state

that has shed so
much black blood.

-The Republic of New
Afrika was founded

by a man who was then
known as Richard Henry,

who later became known
as Dr. Imari Obadele.

-The point of the RNA
was to demand reparations

for slavery and Jim Crow,

to develop armed
self-defense groups

to defend black people,

and to basically demand
territory in the South.

-And Mother Rosa Parks,

she became friends
with Robert Williams

and his wife, Mabel Williams,
who was also a revolutionary.

In Jackson, Mississippi,

their headquarters was
seized upon by authorities.

Law enforcement who were
not enforcing the law...

They were attacking them.

They were shooting at members
of the Republic of New Afrika,

members of the Republic
of New Afrika shot back.

-Two Jackson police
officers and one FBI agent

were hit by the gunfire
from inside the house.

Tear gas and reinforcements
were used to run

the occupants of
the house outside.

Finally, seven members of the
black Republic of New Afrika

surrendered at the
rear of the house.

-Since a member of law
enforcement has been killed,

people are very worried that
they're going to assault,

torture, kill the
members of the RNA

that they've now brought
into police custody.

-Although Dr. Obadele
did none of the shooting

and none of the
causes of violence,

he was the one held responsible,

and he was sentenced to five
years of federal imprisonment.

And Mother Parks contacted the
prison just to check on him.

She said, "I want to know the
condition of Imari Obadele,"

and they called him
Richard Henry. "How is he?

What is his welfare?"

Dr. Imari Obadele said that
Mother Parks calling the prison

that held him for five years
is the reason he was alive.

To her, there was no conflict

between supporting Imari
Obadele and Robert Williams

or supporting Reverend
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,

whom she loved.

She saw that as the same
line of freedom fighting.

She was holistic in her
approach to the right

of all people to be free.

-"I came to
understand that Parks

was willing to work for
things that would improve life

for his race and his
family and himself.

The second time Parks and I were
ever in each other's company,

he talked about getting married.

I hadn't given marriage
a thought at all.

We were married in Pine
Level in my mother's home.

It was not a big wedding, just
family and close friends."

-Uncle Parks was one
of the best of men.

He was kind, he was quiet
as well, and reserved.

-They moved to the
Cleveland Courts projects.

Rosa Parks, people look at
her as a middle-class woman,

but they'd never own a house,
not in their entire marriage.

-Her first meeting
with the NAACP,

the secretary was out.

They asked her if
she'd take the minutes.

It was election day, and
they elected her secretary.

-"Mr. Nixon was considered

the most militant
man in Montgomery.

He was the very first
person who approached me

about the need to
get registered.

Mr. Nixon organized
the Voters League.

I became a member.

I was impressed by his
potential leadership.

He explained to me very
fully the necessity

of getting registered to vote in
order to elect those officials

that would be beneficial to us

and would increase our
ability and opportunity

to become first-class citizens.

The segregationists
made it very difficult

for black people to
register to vote."

-And it was...

practically impossible
to a black person,

regardless of
their intelligence,

to become registered,
except for a very few

that were selected by
the white community.

-African Americans
were largely being

shut out of the ballot box.

This was a period where
one would have to encounter

unrelenting violence

simply for wanting to vote.

-Rosa Parks for all of her
life was fighting on issues

that are still very
much at the forefront

of national
discussion and debate.

-These battles are ongoing.

Today, you look at the
rampant voter suppression

taking place across the country.

State houses at the local level

are introducing voter
suppression laws

that are meant to keep
the ballot box narrow

and as white as possible.

-"The right to vote is so
important for Americans.

We vote for the people to
represent us in government.

I decided to get registered.

The first year I tried was 1943.

I went down to register
and take my tests,

but I did not receive a
certificate in the mail.

The second time I
tried, I was denied.

They just told me,
'You didn't pass.'

They didn't have to
give you a reason.

The registrar could do
whatever they wanted to do.

I was pretty sure
I passed the test,

so the third time
I took the test,

I made a copy of my
answers to those questions.

I was going to keep that
copy and use it to bring suit

against the voter
registration board,

but I received my
certificate in the mail."

-"When I tried to
register to vote,

I was put off a Montgomery
bus for the first time."

-The Women's Political
Council was an organization

that had begun in 1946 after
just dozens of black people

had been arrested on the buses
for segregation purposes.

We had sat down and witnessed
the arrest and humiliation

and the court trials
and fines paid

of people who just sat
down on an empty seat.

Something had to be done.

-The fight to desegregate
public transportation

was part of a larger fight
for citizenship rights.

-Nixon is also working
to protect black people

who are victims
of white violence

and in particular black women

who have been raped
and sexually assaulted.

-She felt strongly
that the same mind-set

that tolerates sexual
violence against black women

by these white men
is the same mind-set

that will refuse to
hold people accountable

when they engage in mob
lynchings and racial terror.

-"Is it worthwhile to reveal
the intimacies of the past life?

Would the people be
sympathetic or disillusioned

when the facts of
my life are told?"

-Rosa Parks writes this
very interesting narrative

of which she describes
a near sexual assault.

And this is something that takes
place in her teenage years.

She's working as a
domestic at the time.

-"I saw Mr. Charlie
standing in the kitchen.

Mr. Charlie poured
himself a drink.

He moved nearer to me and
put his hand on my waist.

I was very frightened,
nearly to death.

I jumped away, and
he was a bit startled

and asked me not to be afraid.

He had money to give me for
accepting his attentions.

I knew that no
matter what happened,

I would never yield to this
white man's bestiality.

I was ready and willing to die.

But give my consent?

Never, never, never.

I talked of everything I know

about the white man's inhumane
treatment of the Negro,

how I hated all white
people, especially him.

He asked me to give him a price.

I turned away, saying
I was not for sale.

If he wanted to kill me
and rape a dead body,

he was welcome, but that he
would have to kill me first.

At long last,
Mr. Charlie got the idea

that I meant no,
very definitely no."

-Ms. Parks was compelled
to document crimes

because people weren't
reacting the way

she thought they should react.

People were a
little too accepting

of some of that victimization
even within the black community.

-We had so many
cases of brutality,

sometimes murder,
sometimes flogging,

sometimes being driven
from their homes.

And I was on call if anybody
needed me to say something

and write up a
report or whatever,

if they would have the
courage to sign it.

And I had been known
in the community

to come to the rescue of people
when sometime others didn't.

They were almost unbelievable.

I wouldn't like to
even mention to you

some of the things
that I had to undergo.

-"I remember one case out
in Abbeville, Alabama,

where my father and
his family came from.

Mrs. Recy Taylor was on
her way home from church

when she was kidnapped,

forced into a car at
gun- and knife-point,

stripped of her clothing,

and raped by six white
men on September 3, 1944."

-Then put a blindfold
on her, took her back,

and dumped her in the
middle of town, and said,

"If you tell anybody,
we'll kill you."

She went promptly to the
sheriff and told him.

And they realized that nothing's
going to happen to these men.

-Rosa Parks hears about
this from a white woman

they know through
Scottsboro organizing.

So Rosa Parks and some
of her comrades decide

that they should investigate it.

-Rosa Parks was sent
to get the testimony.

In those times, to go
100 miles from home.

The sheriff is
outside driving by.

There he goes again.

Well, there he is.

I just only can imagine what
that must have been like,

sitting there, actually
having her tell that story,

and Rosa Parks writing
down every word.

-It was incredibly dangerous
for a black woman to report,

to detail that they had been
the victims of sexual violence.

For Ms. Parks, it was
especially dangerous

going into communities

because she was
seen as the problem.

-In collaboration with
several other activists,

they go as far as to take out
an ad in the local newspaper

in order to let people
know what had taken place

and to place pressure on law
enforcement to do something.

-They write letters
to the governor.

They get media coverage, but
the men are never indicted.

-It was clear that Ms. Parks

had a commitment to
fighting patriarchy.

She committed her whole life
to saying sexual assault

in our communities is something
that has to be eradicated.

-I think that the most
important issue here

is whether a woman has the
right to defend herself.

It raises the question, what
right does a woman have?

-Joan Little is 20, black,

and charged with the murder of
a white jailer in Washington,

North Carolina.

-And Rosa Parks started a Free
Joan Little Movement in Detroit

to try to help with her cause.

-Joan Little was a young woman

who was incarcerated
in North Carolina.

And there was a jailer
there who regularly raped

the women who were in his jail.

And he attempted to do
that with Joan Little,

and he ended up not living
through that assault.

-She was finally acquitted,

but it took a whole
long movement,

and Rosa Parks was one of
the voices of that movement.

-Joan Little was the first
woman in the United States

who ever fought back
and killed her assailant

who was, indeed, exonerated.

So that was a landmark case.

-Rosa Parks considered that
one of the great victories

in the justice struggle.

-There's a continuum from
her work in the South

in the 1940s.

I'm thinking specifically
of Recy Taylor.

-The Recy Taylor case
spurs Nixon and Parks

to run for branch leadership.

And that's when Nixon runs
for branch president and wins.

She runs for secretary and wins.

E.D. Nixon and Rosa
Parks begin a partnership

that's going to change the
face of American history.

They will spend the next decade
turning Montgomery's NAACP

into a much more
activist branch.

-Before, the Montgomery branch
was largely dysfunctional.

There was a lot of infighting,

financial troubles
with the organization,

and a lot of elitism.

The organization was run by
some of the middle-class,

college-educated black
elite in Montgomery.

-Montgomery was always a
class-stratified society.

The black elite took a position
that Negroes should go slow.

They should take their time.

And that's not the politics
that Rosa Parks adopted.

Whoo

-She ran at a faster pace

than a lot of her
contemporaries.

She wanted to go faster.

And you sense that in
her work in the '40s.

She just wasn't going to be
content with the status quo.

-My only brother, who had served
almost four years in the war,

was discharged honorably.

He was quite upset because he
felt that those of us at home

had failed those
on the war front.

-My grandfather, he served in
two theaters in World War II.

A highly respected
military man at the time.

And he came home
and was mistreated.

You know what I mean?

You serve your country,
and then you come home

to a place in which you would
think you would get the flowers,

you would get the accolades,
you would get, at least,

"Don't call me boy or nigger."

-Sylvester will decide
he can't bear this.

And so, in 1946, he and his
family leave Montgomery,

and they never come back.

And he moves to Detroit.

-"Things happened that most
people never heard about

because they never were
reported in the newspapers.

At times, I felt overwhelmed
by all the violence and hatred.

But there was nothing
to do but keep going."

-At that time, I felt that I had
a message and felt very vocal,

but people did not choose to
listen to what I was saying then

because they didn't think there
was any reason for my being

so concerned about doing
away with segregation

because they thought it
was a hopeless cause.

I was working very hard
to bring about freedom,

especially for young
people through the NAACP.

-And the Hebrew children
from the fiery furnace

Why not every man?

-Rosa Parks had a youth
group here at the church

when I was a young teenager,

and we would talk about
the NAACP and its workings.

-And why not every man?

-I was 11 when I joined
the Youth Council.

Montgomery was a
very scary place

that the white community
considered a threat to them.

-It was very difficult

because most of the parents
discouraged their youngsters

and didn't want them
to participate or join.

They didn't mind them
paying the membership,

but they didn't want them to
actively participate in writing

to the Congressmen and
challenging segregation locally.

-We met most of the times

in Mrs. Parks' apartment.

I was drawn to her passion
on eradicating the conditions

that were going on
in our communities.

If there were 12 people in
here, it was an overflow crowd.

Ms. Parks mostly was
sitting over there

and conducting the meetings.

But we talked a lot
about voter registration

and events we were planning.

-It was not, for her, like,
"We're going to pass the torch."

It was, "I will help
you, and we will do this,

and we will talk
about how to do it,

but I believe in
you, young people."

-You kind of feel the energy.

Wow.

I am...

I'm almost speechless.

-"Colored people are employed
at this store as maids,

porters, elevator
operators, truck drivers.

I work in the tailor shop doing
men's clothing alterations

as a helper of the
tailor who is colored.

This thing called
segregation here

is complete and solid
pattern as a way of life."

-To make money on the side,
Rosa Parks is tailoring

for one of Montgomery's

few white civil rights
activist families,

Clifford and Virginia Durr.

Parks and Virginia
began a friendship.

-"She wanted to be part of our
efforts to end segregation,

even though that meant being
ostracized and made to suffer."

-Durr is affiliated with
Highlander Folk School.

-The school was a new beginning,

a link between the
towns and the mountain.

Myles Horton was its founder.

-If we could demonstrate
by the way we lived

and what we believed and
the way we treated people,

that there was a possibility
of, in this situation,

blacks and whites,
working things out.

We hoped that idea would
have some small influence.

-The Highlander Folk School
is trying to build a program

that's dedicated to having
people challenge segregation

throughout the South.

-In the summer of 1955,

Highlander is organizing
a two-week workshop,

and they have a scholarship for
someone to come from Montgomery.

And Virginia Durr
recommends Rosa Parks.

-I hadn't traveled
very much at that time.

Just getting on the bus,

I found myself going
further and further away

from the type of
surroundings I was used to.

It was my very first
experience in my entire life

going to a place where there
were people of another race

and where we were
all treated equally

and without any tension or
feeling of embarrassment

or whatever goes with
artificial boundaries

of racial segregation.

Myles Horton, along
with his staff,

did give me my first
insight on the fact

that there were such people

who believed completely in
freedom and equality for all.

-At the time Rosa Parks
came to Highlander,

we were just beginning
to get some understanding

in the South of
the possibilities,

the hope of doing something.

Ms. Parks was probably
the quietest participant

in the workshop,

but we had high hopes for her.

-I was somewhat withdrawn and
didn't have very much to say.

But finally I relaxed and
enjoyed the stay very much

throughout the entire workshop.

-It's there that she begins
to get even a sharper

and a broader understanding of
this struggle for civil rights.

-That particular
school, Myles Horton,

is responsible for me today

not hating every
white person I see.

I learned at that
time and at that place

that there are decent people
of any race and color.

-"The Montgomery NAACP
was beginning to think

about filing a suit against
the city over bus segregation,

but they had to have the right
plaintiff and a strong case.

The best plaintiff
would be a woman

because a woman would get
more sympathy than a man.

And the woman would have
to be above reproach

and have done nothing wrong but
refuse to give up her seat."

-March 2nd of 1955,

there was a young girl
named Claudette Colvin

who was arrested on the bus
for refusing to stand up.

And she was taken off the
bus bodily by three policemen

and thrown into jail.

-I was very active in
Mrs. Parks' youth group.

And I began to think about
how unfair we was treated.

They asked me to get
up, and I refused.

I could not move because history
had me glued to the seat.

It felt like Sojourner
Truth's hands

were pushing me
down on one shoulder

and Harriet Tubman's hands

were pushing me down
on another shoulder.

-Instead of charging her with
violating the segregation law,

they charged her with
disorderly conduct,

resisting an officer,
and assault and battery.

-The NAACP ultimately did not
move forward with her case.

At the age of 15,
they did not think

that she would make
a good witness,

that she would not be reliable.

Some people described her

as being a bit
rebellious and feisty.

And Claudette Colvin was
a dark-skinned black girl.

There was colorism.

-I was really disappointed.

-There was a lot of emotion

building over this
period of time.

The people were
just feeling pushed.

Violence on the buses
had been going on, too.

And there was a veteran who
was killed by a police officer.

-"Treading the tightrope of
Jim Crow from birth to death,

from the cradle to the grave is
a major mental acrobatic feat.

It takes a noble soul
to plumb this line.

There's always a line of
some kind... color line,

hanging rope, tightrope.

To me, it seems that we
are puppets on a string

in the white man's hands.

They say we must be segregated
from the color line,

yet they pull the strings,

and we perform to
their satisfaction

or suffer the consequences
if we get out of line."

-There were literally hundreds
of incidents on the buses.

There are no black bus drivers,
and all bus drivers are armed.

-There was a growing
consciousness

that the polite, accommodating,
gentle way of getting people

to see the humanity of black
people in this community

was not going to be enough.

-The death of Emmett Till...

She knew she could
not take it anymore,

see black children
killed, see women raped,

see men accosted and mutilated.

It brought a big
burden on Auntie Rosa.

-The front of the bus was
reserved for white people.

The back of the bus was
reserved for black people.

And then there's the middle.

And the middle is kind of a no
man's land that black people

are entitled to sit there,

but on the whim of the driver,
could be asked to move.

By the terms of
Alabama segregation,

all four people in her
aisle will have to get up

for this one white
person to sit down.

-"The driver said, 'Y'all better
make it light on yourselves

and let me have those seats.'

I could not see how
standing up was going

to make it light for me.

I thought back to the time
when I used to sit up all night

and my grandfather would have
his gun right by the fireplace."

"I asked for water to drink.

And as I walked to the fountain,

one yelled, 'Get away from here.

You can't drink water
from that fountain.'

I went back to the desk,
still very thirsty.

I felt completely
alone and desolate,

as if I was descending into a
black and bottomless chasm."

"Mr. Nixon asked
if I'd be willing

to make my case as a test
case against segregation.

I had worked on
enough cases to know

that a ruling could not be
made without a plaintiff.

So I agreed to be
the plaintiff."

-She calls a young, 25-year-old
lawyer named Fred Gray

who she knew and had become
friends with in the NAACP

to ask him to represent her.

-As president of the
Women's Political Council,

I called all the officers
of the three chapters.

And I told them that Rosa
Parks had been arrested

and she would be tried.

They said, "You have the plans?

Put them into operation."

I didn't go to bed that night.

I cut those stencils.

I ran off 35,000 copies,
and I distributed them.

We had worked for
at least three years

getting that thing organized.

-Oh, yeah

-Friday, which was
the 2nd of December,

it was a typical school day.

I was in ninth grade.

I remember very, very clearly
telling us, "You're here

because you're bus riders,
and we're depending on you

to take a note home
to your parents.

The note tells your parents

that you are not to ride
the buses on Monday.

And it's so important that you
don't let anybody see this note.

Students, I'm depending on you."

-People were wondering if
this was really going to work.

Everybody was doubtful.

We thought that it would
cause a lot of problems.

I can remember the fear
and the anxiety of people.

-Monday morning, which
was the 5th of December,

my dad came home about 7:00.

Boy, was he excited.

I never will forget...
"The buses are empty.

The buses are empty. Oh,
they're as clean as Jesus.

Wow, the buses are empty."

We laughed.

I said, "We got to
walk. We got to walk.

We got to walk."

We were so excited.

-On the evening of December 5th,

we had a meeting at the
Holt Street Baptist Church.

There were thousands of people.

-I remember being
given a leaflet

announcing the mass meeting
at Holt Street Church.

People showed up
from everywhere.

They had to block off streets.

The church had the loudspeaker
outside so people could hear.

-It was just packed.

And I did get escorted
to the pulpit.

And there were, oh, so many
people that... You can imagine

that many getting
in this church.

People were so enthusiastic,
and they were so willing.

I did not have to speak,
and I didn't speak

because they told me
I had said enough.

-Reverend King.

-Dr. Martin Luther King,

who had just become the pastor
of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church,

he was not well known, and
this was his coming-out party.

-He ended up becoming
a spokesperson.

He put the boycott in
a global perspective.

-There was a vote
taken to decide

whether the protest
would continue.

And the decision was unanimous.

People were yelling out that
they would remain off the buses

until changes were made
for the better for us.

-So can you imagine how
people must have felt

when they realized,
"We did this?

Look, we stood
against the threat."

"You want to go on?" "Yes."

-The sun will never
go down, go down

The sun will never
go down, go down

The flowers...

-They organize a carpool
system where they set up

40 pickup stations
all around the city,

and the Montgomery
Improvement Association

ultimately is coordinating,

like, 10,000 to
15,000 rides per day.

Rosa Parks will serve as a
dispatcher for about a month.

-"Riders, go to dispatch
and pickup stations

if you want transportation.
Don't be rude.

Remember how long some of us

had to wait when
the bus passed us

without stopping in the
morning and evening.

Drivers, stay on the job.

The riders may
create some problems,

but try to be patient with them.

They are making the
protest the success it is."

-My dad would every morning,
before he'd go to work,

go to one of the pickup stops

and would carry
somebody else to work.

-People could go and get
in a black-owned taxi

to get to work instead.

Or the workers
that were impacted

by not riding the buses
had, like, mutual aid

to take care of them
and their families

while the economy took the hit.

-Black women were the forefront.

They helped out as
fundraisers, organized rides,

cooked food in their home

to make sure that they
could sustain the boycott.

-The Women's Political Council
had more than 300 members,

and we were organized
to the point

that we knew that in
a matter of hours,

- Christian soldiers

Marching as to war

-Months later, the attention
that the boycott generated

was unexpected for white
people in Montgomery.

They didn't think anybody
cared about black people.

-This attracted
so much attention

that people came from
all over the country.

They sent money, sent
clothing, sent shoes, food,

and they sent in enough money

to purchase several station
wagons through the churches.

One of the things
that made our movement

so very significant,

because we were banding
together on a common cause.

As long as we were divided
and fearful, we were defeated.

-For several months,
Rosa Parks traveled.

She played a key role in helping
to fundraise for the boycott.

-We did not have weapons

to go against the
power structure,

but our persistence,
our patience,

our faith, and our
belief in each other

always strengthened
our determination

to remain steadfast and united.

-Segregation is an
institution of society

we do not intend
to see disturbed.

-The White Citizens' Councils

were the kind of respectable
version of the Klan.

They were the judges
and the lawyers,

and their task was to defend
segregation at all costs,

but do so in a way

that presented a kind of
look of respectability.

-You are not going to permit
the NAACP to control your state.

We are not going to
permit our little children

to be used as pawns in
a game of power politics

to get the racial
vote in Marble City.

-The cities try in all different
ways to break the boycott.

There's all sorts of violence.
People are throwing things,

including cops, like urine, and
they're slashing people's tires.

-A lot of the
high-profile leaders...

Martin Luther King

from the Montgomery
Improvement Association,

E.D. Nixon from the NAACP...

Their houses are bombed.

-And people don't appreciate
the kind of violence

that people endured,

and how people would
put on their Sunday best

and go places knowing that
they were going to get beaten

and bloodied and battered
when they got there.

-Fred Gray decided to
file a proactive case

into federal court

to start another legal front
in challenging bus segregation.

And so he's looking
for plaintiffs,

and in the end, four women,

including Claudette
Colvin, stepped forward,

which will be called
Browder v. Gayle.

Parks is not on
that federal case,

partly because of her
long political history

with the NAACP as an activist.

Their case went all the way to
the Supreme Court, and they won.

-The Montgomery
Improvement Association

recommends that the
11-month-old protest

against the city buses
will be called off,

and that the Negro citizens
of Montgomery, Alabama,

will return to the buses
on a nonsegregated basis.

-Freedom

Freedom

-The Montgomery bus boycott

is the most successful
boycott in U.S. history.

People have been trying to
replicate it for forever.

I think if social
movements could understand

the bus boycott, we
could win everything.

-I make the rules as I go

Choose my destiny

I follow my dreams

Make no apologies

Fear has no hold on me

Freedom

Freedom

-All sorts of rumors
snake through Montgomery's

white community
about Rosa Parks...

That she's an NAACP plant,
that she's a Communist plant,

she has a car, she's Mexican,

that she's not even
from Montgomery.

-We don't often want to
talk about the reprisals.

We don't want to talk
about the consequences

and how people make
personal sacrifices

in order to advance
a broader movement.

-After the incident,
I worked five weeks

through the month of December

and was discharged from my job

-The owner of the barbershop
on the Air Force base

prohibits all
discussion of Rosa Parks

and all discussion
of the bus boycott.

And Raymond resigns
in protest, thinking

that if he can't
defend his wife,

that he's being silenced.

-Dr. King ends up
getting the accolades.

He is invited
everywhere to speak,

gets an honorarium,
makes money, survives.

He's a hero.

-The civil rights groups
would have her go out

and speak at events
and raise money,

but it never occurred to anybody

that they ought to find some
way for them to be supported.

I think that part of
the way she was treated

was because she was a woman,
therefore taken advantage.

-Montgomery's a smaller town.

People had to know that
she was no longer working.

King, none of them
offered her a job.

Rosa Parks was also
a prideful woman

and would not dare ask.

And I don't think she
was the kind of woman

that would think she was owed.

-Auntie Rosa never
discussed any hardship.

You would not know she
was hungry, for instance.

You wouldn't know that she
could not pay this bill.

-They were getting
death threats,

and her mother was on the phone

all hours of the night to
stop calls from coming in.

-They had to go somewhere
because of her safety,

so she called on my father,

and they knew if she
called, it was an emergency.

They needed to get
her out of there.

-My grandfather,
Sylvester McCauley I,

he told her, "Don't worry about
any of that. Come up to Detroit.

We will protect you.

We will have more
opportunities up here for you.

And, plus, you will be around
family that loves you."

-Here, you have this flood
of people coming into Detroit

because of the automobile
industry, was the magnet.

My goodness, it was like
you dropped the plow,

you dispensed with the mule,
and headed for Detroit.

However, you had
restrictive covenants

that limited the movement
of the black people

to just one part of the city.

These are some things
that Rosa Parks' brother

understood long
before she arrived.

Sylvester, he had
already experienced

a lot of these things, so
he was able to talk to Rosa

about some of this
history and background.

-"I don't know whether I
could have been more effective

as a worker for
freedom in the South

than I am here in Detroit.

Really the same thing that
has occurred in the South

is existing here to
a certain degree.

We do have the same problems."

-Blacks in Detroit
were relegated

to the worst parts of town,

called Black Bottom
and Hastings Street.

But we built homes there, and
institutions developed there.

-It was very difficult,
to say the least.

So what my grandfather would do,
he would just grow his own food.

-My father had a green thumb.

He'd work all day in
the Chrysler's plant,

and then he would come
home and work a garden.

We grew up on fresh tomatoes,
green peppers, onion.

There was enough food in
that little plot for him,

grandmother, Auntie
Rosa, and Uncle Parks.

-Rosa Parks is a
very creative person,

and she would take found items
and create stuff out of them...

Of course, dresses
and ideas of quilts.

-She taught us how to sew.

The stitches were
absolutely perfect.

She could tailor anything.

She could look at something
and go home and sew it.

-1959 is probably the worst
year for the Parks' family.

They record an annual
income of $700.

She can't find steady work,
Raymond can't find steady work.

In 1960, Jet magazine
will run an exposé

where they describe her

as a tattered version
of her former self.

This article leads to
people raising money for her

around the country.

They move into a
better place to live...

The first floor of a
duplex on Virginia Park.

Rosa Parks will
get a job in 1961

at the Stockton Sewing Company.

It's basically a
glorified sweatshop.

She's doing piecework there.

And Raymond will start to
barber around the corner

at the Wildemere Barbershop.

-I opened Vaughn's
Bookstore in '59,

the second black bookstore
to open in America.

It was a very hot
period for black books.

They were just coming into
vogue at that particular time.

I met Mrs. Parks when
she was a customer.

She and her husband, Raymond,

would walk up to the
bookstore on a regular basis,

because we were about 8 or 10
blocks from where she lived.

Every Thursday night,
I would have meetings.

Rosa Parks was there, and she
was right up on the front seat.

I always talked
politics with her,

and I got to know
her pretty well,

and also her husband. He
was a very fine gentleman.

-You never hear that
much about Raymond

because he was a very quiet,

behind-the-scenes
kind of individual.

You'll find that Rosa Parks and
Raymond Parks are inseparable.

Often, the man is out front,

and you never hear
about the wife.

Here, the reverse is true.

-Uncle Parks was willing to
let Auntie Rosa step out there

and just do her thing.

He was not the kind of husband

that stood in the
way of Auntie Rosa.

She could make any speech,
travel where she wanted.

-"I was with the March
on Washington in 1963.

That was a great occasion.

But women were not allowed
to play much of a role.

-The March on Washington
is one example of how

black women are
often marginalized

in the civil rights movement.

If you look at those who spoke,

with the exception
of Daisy Bates,

who only spoke
for a few minutes,

the entire program
was dominated by men.

-"There was a tribute to women
in which A. Philip Randolph,

one of the organizers
of the march,

introduced some of the women

who had participated
in the struggle,

and I was one of them."

-They would have her stand
up and wave at people...

"There's Rosa Parks. She sat
down on the bus in Montgomery.

Wave at them, Rosa
Parks, Mrs. Parks."

Then she'd sit down.

They never said
anything beyond that.

-I was 15 when I went to
the March on Washington.

I stood there in awe of all of
the people that had gathered.

And I remember Lena
Horne moving swiftly

to the front of the stage,

picked up a microphone,
and sung two syllables.

-Freedom

-And they lingered in the air.

There was a blanket of silence.

-There's so much patriarchy
built into the movement,

like it's built into
so many institutions.

Women raise most of the money,
do most of the organizing,

but when you go back
and check the record,

those who've been labeled
presidents or directors

or the leaders,
the Grand Poobah,

largely have been men,

while the women
have done the work.

And Mother Parks, she
was doing the work.

-By the 1960s, you
have this evolving

black liberation
struggle in this country,

and Rosa is not at all
outside the realm of that,

because she understands
the urgency,

the struggle that's going on,

because she identified
strongly with young people,

particularly the militant,
radical people in the society.

-Malcolm X has come to Detroit,

and he makes it known he
wants to meet Rosa Parks.

Malcolm X looked on two people

in the civil rights
movement with awe,

and that was Fannie Lou
Hamer and Rosa Parks.

-Whenever he had an opportunity
to talk about the role of women,

Rosa Parks would be the
first thing out of his mouth.

His thing was, you've got
to push a little bit harder,

be a bit more aggressive,

take a stronger stance
for self-determination,

for independence and
liberation in our society.

So Malcolm would see Rosa

as, like, certainly a
soldier in all of this.

-She was totally enthralled
by the Malcolm idea.

He was so dynamic, he
so spoke the truth.

-You and your government

preach one thing and
practice another thing.

You say that this is
the land of equality,

and 20 million of your
black so-called citizens

don't have equality.

-The strength of him and
the intelligence of him

and the commitment of him

was right up the
alley of Rosa Parks.

-"He had come to
Detroit to speak,

and I was sitting
in the front row.

His home in New York
had been firebombed,

and all his clothes had been
damaged by water and smoke,

but he came to Detroit anyway

because he had
made a commitment."

-They meet for the
last time about a week

before he's assassinated.

-"I spoke to him, and he
autographed the program for me.

I had a lot of
admiration for him.

He was a very brilliant man.

Dr. King used to say

that black people should
receive brutality with love,

and I believed this
was a goal to work for,

but I could not reach that
point in my mind at all.

Malcolm wasn't a supporter
of nonviolence either."

-It's her encounters
with Malcolm X

that create what politics looks
like for Rosa in the 1960s.

-The police in
Detroit were brutal.

In fact, police brutality
that ultimately led

to the Detroit Rebellion in
'67, which was at that point,

the largest urban
rebellion in U.S. history.

-"The establishment of
white people will antagonize

and provoke violence,

and the young people want
to present themselves

as human beings and come
into their own as men,

there is always something
to cut them down."

-The Michigan National
Guard on the west side,

they were beating folks

and busting windows
out of folks' homes.

On the east side of Detroit,
they sent in the 82nd Airborne.

-Close to 50 people, almost
all of them African American,

were killed by the police

and killed by the
National Guard.

-During the rebellion time,

three young men were killed
at the Algiers Motel.

There was a blackout on
news about the incident.

It's obvious nothing was
happening, no justice.

-So young militants decide to
organize a people's tribunal

to bring the facts of the
case to the community,

and they ask Rosa Parks
to serve on the jury.

-I was one of the
young radicals.

I said, "She's not
going to go for this."

I asked her. She says,
"Certainly. I'm glad you asked."

We had the tribunal here at the
Church of the Black Madonna.

-Jesus was concerned
about freedom,

about people coming together,

about the unity
of a black people

fighting against the oppression
of a white Gentile nation, Rome.

-The Shrine of the Black Madonna

was part of the
whole Black Power,

black liberation
movement of that period.

First time I met Rosa
Parks was in 1967

at the people's trial
that was taking place.

-This entire church was packed.

All of us were there
to see and witness

her display of what we call
the imminence of justice.

-Well, the conclusion was
that they were guilty.

They was guilty of murder
in the first degree.

-I don't think people understand

how well-trained
Mrs. Parks was.

I don't think they understand
what a good organizer she was.

I don't think they understand

how long she had
been in the struggle,

and I don't think
they understood

how radical her understanding

of what the kind of
change we need is.

And it's a part of her magic,
really, that on the one hand,

she can cultivate this notion
of innocence, if you will,

while acting on behalf of and
espousing very radical views.

-Politically, we were changing,

and black people were
growing in percentage

of the people in Detroit, and
they were beginning to think

that we need to have our
own people representing us.

They no longer wanted
to be represented

primarily by white people.

-It has been made a very
bad neighborhood to live in.

We would like to take action

to see this
neighborhood cleaned up,

because I'd be afraid to send
a child of mine to the store.

-John Conyers, he was
a freedom fighter.

Coretta Scott King, she told me

that Mother Parks
got her husband

to endorse Congressman
John Conyers

for Congress, and he was
the only elected official

he ever endorsed.

-Mrs. Parks, she helped him.

He had a difficult time,
because the Democratic Party

did not support him in the
beginning of his running.

-I think what she did was bring
a presence of authenticity.

-She was at meetings,

and she was always
there and supported him.

And she helped us
in our voting drive,

and we went out and got
people registered to vote.

Mrs. Parks was involved
in all of that.

She was in it, and we
were in it to win it.

-In 1965, John Conyers
is elected to Congress,

and the first thing he
does is hire Rosa Parks.

-And to my honor and
delight, she did accept,

and we were happy to have
her in my original staff.

-She has been an activist
for over three decades,

she is 52, and this is her
first paid political job.

This position comes
with health insurance,

which is incredibly important.

-He was in awe of
Mother Rosa Parks,

even though she worked for him.

-I had worked on John
Conyers' first campaign.

John Conyers came out of
a labor movement family.

So there was a lot of
hostility toward John Conyers

for being John Conyers,

never mind for
hiring Mrs. Parks.

That was kind of throwing
gasoline on the fire,

I think, in the eyes of
a lot of white people.

-John, he said, "I just
want Ms. Parks in my office.

She can do whatever
she want to do.

Her name is Rosa Parks."

-The day-to-day
answering the phones,

the recording, the note-taking.

Whatever John Conyers
asked her, she did.

-She was a humble person.

Rosa Parks essentially
had a saint-like quality.

-Conyers told me once
that Mother Parks

asked him to reduce her salary
because she told him that,

"People keep giving me awards
and honors and tributes.

And I feel bad when I
have to leave your office

and go pick up these honors."

And John Conyers
said, "No, Mrs. Parks.

It's an honor for me that
you're working in my office,

and I will not be
reducing your salary."

-The Reverend Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr.,

father of the
nonviolent movement

in the American civil
rights struggle,

was killed by an
assassin's bullet tonight

in Memphis, Tennessee.

The 39-year-old Nobel Peace
Prize winner was hit in the neck

by a bullet as he stood on
the balcony of his hotel

and died less than an hour later
in a hospital emergency room.

-"I remember my mother and I
were listening to the radio.

It was approaching Easter time.

The program was interrupted

to say that Dr. King
had been shot.

It was very devastating.

I was lost.

How else can I describe it?

I was deeply grieved.

Mama and I wept
quietly together."

-She starts playing Sam Cooke,

"A Change Is Gonna
Come," over and over.

-I was born by the river

In a little tent

Oh, and just like the
river, I've been running

Ever since

It's been a long

A long time coming, but I know

-"His smooth voice was
like medicine to the soul.

It was as if Dr. King was
speaking directly to me."

-I rarely saw her show emotion,

but when Dr. King
was assassinated,

I saw her cry at his funeral.

-"I was losing the
people I love best.

My husband and
brother were all sick,

and there was a time when
I was traveling every day

to three different
hospitals to visit them.

I had to quit working full
time and work only part time."

-Auntie Rosa and Uncle Parks
loved each other until the end.

As Uncle Parks'
health deteriorated,

the loving way that she
would take care of him.

They were so closely
joined together.

-"Parks died in
1977, when he was 74,

after a five-year
struggle against cancer.

My brother Sylvester
died three months

after that, also of cancer.

Mama was ill with cancer, too.

I cared for her at home until
she died at the age of 91."

-Dearborn is a predominantly
white affluent suburb,

home to the Ford Motor Company,

but many of the people
who work in Dearborn

come from Detroit, 63% black.

-The Dearborn boycott really
started where a black family

had gone into a Dearborn
park to have a picnic.

A white family
showed up and said,

"Well, you're not
residents of Dearborn,

so you can't use this park."

So the white family went to
the city council of Dearborn

and got them to
pass an ordinance

to restrict nonresidents
from using a public park.

In other words, black
folks, don't use our parks.

Mrs. Parks was participating

in the discussion, and
we said, "Well, hell,

let's boycott Dearborn."

So it's almost like
the bus boycott.

There's this photograph
of Mrs. Parks and I

going to this news conference,

and it became front-page news.

When Rosa Parks was
asked by the media,

"Do you support this boycott?"

she said, "I support
this boycott 100%."

The boycott went
from the local courts

all the way up to the
Michigan Supreme Court.

It was ruled unconstitutional.

We won.

And once again,

Mrs. Parks was on the
right side of history.

-These days, there
still seems to be

a kind of feeling of
hostility around Alabama

sometimes towards blacks and
around the South towards blacks.

-And also in the North,
and wherever we go.

- Yeah.
- Listen, I can't say why

because it is another question
that has to be answered

by those people who
have that attitude,

why they have it.

-After the Dearborn boycott,
I put my hat in the ring

to run for the president
of the Detroit NAACP.

And I asked Rosa Parks if
she would be my running mate.

She agreed.

-"I have been a member
of the NAACP since 1943.

I believed, and still do,

that the invitation to
become a member of the board

will allow me to
give some direction

to the activities of
the Detroit branch."

-They put a campaign together.

Got a prominent minister
to run on another slate.

They were afraid
of our activism.

And the thing that
was so hilarious

as we were campaigning...

these old-ass men would say,

"Rosa Parks is too old

to be officer in the NAACP."

And my retort would be,
"She's traveling all over

the world being Rosa Parks,"

and they could hardly
walk up the steps.

-"Instead of spending
so much energy

on an internal power struggle,

we should be concerned with
what we should be doing

about increased racism with
the rise of the New Right.

Our energy should be
focused on responses

and not on whose name appears
on the NAACP stationary."

-And they defeated us, but
they didn't control Rosa Parks.

-"I hope to someday see an end
to the conditions in our country

that make people
want to hurt others."

-The kind of compassion
she had for people

who were struggling
was really refined.

She was led by a
compassionate heart

to do really difficult things.

Challenging things.

-One night, a young man broke
into Rosa Parks' apartment

and attempting to rob the house.

-This man threatened her
and physically beat her.

-Struck me on this
side of the face

and on that side of the face
and a little scar up there.

-And she fought
back. By herself.

-Caught hold of
his shirt that way

and pushed him off of
me the best I could.

-She was elderly. 5'1".

100 pounds soaking wet.

She came out
fighting on this guy,

and I believe that
saved her life.

She had to go to the
hospital, and she recovered.

Very painful again because...

I still, to this day,

don't understand how
she was by herself.

Many people offered her
money, gifts, everything,

and she turned them all down

because she was not a
person that wanted things.

She wanted you to be okay

and fairly treated. That's it.

She didn't want
that extra stuff.

She didn't want the awards.
She didn't want the money.

She didn't want the fame.

What she did was,
she forgave the man.

The media asked her, "Well,
how could this happen?

What happened after?" She
said, "I already forgave him.

Just don't do it again."

-She takes things in stride,

and she moved on.

-Just want to get everything
over with it and...

-Yes, and get back to
my job, what I'm doing.

-Rosa Parks, alongside
a longtime friend

and fellow activist,
Elaine Steele,

decide to found the
Rosa and Raymond Parks

Institute for Self Development

to really cultivate young
people's leadership,

young people's vision.

-The gift that Ms. Parks gives

is the decades-long transitions

of what your role can

and should look
like as times shift,

as conditions change.

-I welcome this opportunity
to lend my support to freeing

South African natives

and freeing those imprisoned
political prisoners

and all that goes to
make it a free country.

-Nelson Mandela
walked out of jail

and into a South
Africa facing rapid,

some say frightening, change.

-While he was in prison, he
said he was reading about her,

and her courage
meant so much to him.

In 1990, Nelson Mandela
came to Detroit,

one of the cities he
visited after his release

following 27 years of
imprisonment in South Africa.

There was a line of
VIPs greeting him

as he came to what was
then Tiger Stadium.

Mother Parks was added
at the last minute,

so she was at the
end of the line.

Nelson Mandela looked up,

saw Mother Parks at
the end of that row.

He rushed down with
his arms outstretched.

"Rosa, Rosa, Rosa!"

And held her so tight it
lifted her up off the ground.

She was slightly built.

That exuberant response
from Nelson Mandela

meant everything about
who was a real celebrity

among that list of VIPs.

-"I've never gotten used
to being a public person.

I have more honorary
degrees than I can count.

Interviewers still
only want to talk

about that one evening in 1955

when I refused to give
up my seat on the bus."

"I understand that
I am a symbol."

-There were times when I
would be very discouraged,

but I always remembered that,
deep within, there's a spirit

that is beyond my
physical strength.

-Her whole being was
dedicated to God.

She was highly spiritual,

highly understanding of purpose,

and that we have
a life to serve.

During the last couple
years of her life,

me and my father,
we would go see her,

and her caretaker would
be there with a smile

on her face, saying,
"Oh, come on in.

Your Auntie Rosa
asked about y'all."

-Yes, I was with
her when she passed.

I grabbed her hand, and
I said, "Rosie, Rosie."

And it was a doctor there.

And she came, and she
said, "She's gone."

-I was born by the river

In a little tent

-When Mother Parks
joined the ancestors,

the Bible was open on her
chest to the 23rd Psalm.

That says everything.

-What does the 23rd Psalm say?

-"The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie
down in green pastures.

He leads me beside
the still waters.

He restores my soul.

He leads me in the
path of righteousness

for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil.

For thy rod and thy
staff, they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.

Surely goodness and
mercy shall comfort me

all the days of my life.

And I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever."

-Her body is flown
to Montgomery.

There is a massive
celebration of her life there.

Her body is then flown to D.C.

-Glory

Glory, glory

-She becomes the first woman,

the first civilian, the
second African American

to lie in honor in
the nation's capital.

-Hallelujah

-President George Bush
and 40,000 Americans

come and pay tribute to her.

It's really an
unprecedented honor.

I mean, nothing like this
happened for Martin Luther King.

Her body is then
flown to Detroit.

-Put your hands together
and show your love

for Sister Rosa Parks.

Show your love.

Show your love.

She sat down to test the law!

She was a freedom fighter.

A seamstress.

That's irrelevant.

She didn't get
locked up for sewing.

She was a militant!

-I'll never forget that.

And... Oh, boy.

That was a great time of
remembrance of a great lady.

-The whole city showed up.

The whole world showed up
for Mother Rosa Parks...

which was wonderful.

-Ladies and gentlemen,
the statue of Rosa Parks.

-Rosa Parks simply
did what was natural.

She was tired, so she sat down.

Today, we will remember
with admiration

the simple act of a brave woman.

-There's a convenience
in making it small...

A small act, an innocent act.

I believe when we
devoid it of strategy,

we create an environment
where it's easy to fix racism.

-On the day that
Rosa Parks' statue

was erected in the Capitol,

the Supreme Court was
hearing oral argument

in Shelby v. Holder,
the Voting Rights...

1965 Voting Rights Act law,

to decide whether it was
still constitutional.

-This was a very big deal.

Remember what a moment
in history it was

when Lyndon Johnson signed
the Voting Rights Act.

And now the Supreme Court
said, "You know what?

Times have changed.
The old South is gone.

These days of systematic
exclusion of Blacks are over."

-The Court gut the
Voting Rights Act.

The irony in that is Rosa Parks

was at the march from
Selma to Montgomery,

which was part of the move

to get the Voting
Rights Act of 1965

passed in the first place.

And here they are, in fact,

enhancing voter suppression
on that same day.

-It erased her whole
political history

from the 1930s, really,
until the eve of her death.

It erased the fact that
she was part of a movement

that was considered a
threat to the United States.

-And so a statue was the way

we were going to remember
the civil rights movement.

And so she gets trapped in this
image of this long-ago problem

that we had in this country.

And in many ways,
the statute reduced

and trapped what her
legacy actually asks of us.

-She was very mindful
of the ways in which,

despite the activism
in the 1950s and '60s,

we had not made the progress
that she'd hoped for.

-Fighting for voting rights

is about fighting for the right
to participate in democracy.

-The struggle has many parts.

-Hands up! Don't
shoot! Hands up!

-It is a struggle which
requires a use of direct action.

-Don't shoot! Hands
up! Don't shoot!

-Each generation has
to make its own dent

in the wall of injustice.

-Rosa Parks never
gave up that torch.

She lit the torch to
the next generation.

-We will continue to show
our strength in numbers.

-When you think back on
it, if you had to do it

all over again, would you do it?

-Yes, I would.

As far as I can remember
during my lifetime,

I resisted the idea
of being mistreated

and pushed around
because of my race.

And I felt that all
people should be free

regardless of their color.

And when the driver demanded
that we give up this seat,

I felt that the time had
come to not take it anymore.

I had had enough, and
this was truly the end

of being pushed around.

-Yeah

-Please, Lord, won't
you bind my hands

'Cause I don't wanna hurt nobody

Oh, Lord, won't
you guide my soul

'Cause I don't wanna act ungodly

Oh, Lord, won't
you help my soul?

These heathens want
to steal my faith

I really need some self-control

I'm trying not to
fall from grace

Lord, please won't
you help my soul

Come strengthen my faith

Strengthen my faith

-Yeah

Yeah