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NEWS
| OCTOBER 26, 2005
Unmovable Legacy
UTA remembers Parks as fighting
for change
By Elaine
Marsilio
The Shorthorn staff
Undeclared junior Miraj Mussq considers civil rights pioneer Rosa
Parks’ display of courage on a Montgomery, Ala., city bus
as a turning point in American history.
In 1955, Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man and later
served time in jail because of it. Her efforts led a generation
of activists, including the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Parks, known as the “mother of the civil rights movement,”
died of natural causes Monday in her home in Detroit. She was 92.
Since Parks did so much for the 1950s and ’60s movement, Mussq
said it’s hard to say good-bye to such a revolutionary icon.
“It’s sad because she’s one of the strongest women
of the civil rights movement,” Mussq said.
Parks was jailed and fined $14 for disobeying rules that required
blacks to give up their seats to whites. Her arrest sparked a 381-day
boycott of the bus system led by Dr. King.
Others on campus Tuesday expressed their feelings about Parks’
death.
Civil engineering senior Mike Garza said Parks helped fuel the civil
rights movement, but unlike King and Malcolm X, Parks lived to see
the movement’s goals come to fruition.
Her courage inspired others.
“Obviously, she made people think they can be strong about
themselves and not be scared,” he said.
Dean of Students Austin Lane said Parks’ actions on the Alabama
bus demonstrated a humanistic effort for all Americans, not just
blacks.
“It impacted the human race, really exposing what was wrong
with American society at that time,” Lane said. “She
stepped out on faith, and we all see the results today because of
that.”
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