ROSA PARKS MY STORY HOW TO

One evening in early December 1955 I was sitting in the front seat of the colored section of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Even when we use it in self-defense – and obviously violence in self-defense has nothing to do with violence used to exploit, dominate, torture and murder people – violence hurts us, it drives us away of why we started struggling in the first place.Īt the beginning of the 21st century we have witnessed massive nonviolent struggle all over the world, and this time not only by feminists and colored people (black, brown, gold).

Violence dehumanizes us because of its prize, as people who fought for social justice and were forced to use violence can tell you.

Think of when at last we understood the idea of 'human rights' – in the 20th century! Violence is not what makes us human, though patriarchal societies have developed violence in a solely human way – to enact cruelty and abuse. However, the fact remains that the most intelligent and beautiful things humans have been capable of have had nothing to do with violence. Racism and machismo are so deeply rooted in our minds that we still just consider 'struggle' what some men using violence do to push other men out of power positions. Learn to miss women as thinkers, artists, activists, these people with a human mind that have been just considered good for serving as slaves in patriarchal societies since the Neolithic. Women have been using nonviolent struggle for centuries.

Learning about nonviolence involves noticing women and feminism, too! Martin Luther King and Gandhi were religious patriarchs and therefore their nonviolence was not sensitive to gender injustice. (Read the last paragraph on page 134 in chapter 9 and consider, Would a male activist have behaved that way? Wouldn't he have considered that he was the protagonist and shouldn't be performing those 'minor' tasks?) Try to expand your thinking to include your own development of a feminist intelligence, too, for feminism is a kind of social struggle that has always used nonviolence and has never been credited for its contribution to building a better world. Rosa Parks was not (just) a housewife, tired of her day's work or a secretary assisting the true activists, men. And notice repression, too – how the authorities supporting segregation laws and racist people were responding.Īlthough Rosa Parks does not share here a feminist assessment of her experiences, she does include some relevant information about the world problem of machismo.

ROSA PARKS MY STORY HOW TO

Notice all the kinds of things activists do when they are in the struggle: envisioning and performing direct action, spreading ideas and information, attending and giving workshops and talks, learning about the law and about how to change it, developing networks of mutual support. As you read, try to notice the countless ingredients that go into the pot of social struggle, from feelings that push us to individual action to community organizing. This autobiography is a beautiful, inspiring and powerful example of nonviolent struggle. Introduction by michelle for her EOI students (state-run adult language education in Spain, 2013-14): (Feb.Excerpts from Rosa Parks: My Story (Puffin Books, 1992) Some readers will be stunned by Parks's firsthand accounts of violence against blacks all will be deeply impressed by her boundless energy and courage. The simplicity and candor of this courageous woman's voice make these compelling events even more moving and dramatic. In lively anecdotal style, she describes her early family life and schooling, her run-ins with disdainful white children, her courtship and marriage to Raymond Parks and her active role in the Montgomery NAACP and in the civil rights movement. Long before Parks's stand against racial segregation, her ``very strong sense of what was fair'' had provoked her to launch her own personal campaign against injustice. What this book provides is a framework that will enable its audience to put this historic moment into a broader context, and to appreciate the monumental effect on one woman and on an entire nation. Many readers of this absorbing autobiography will be familiar with the incident for which Rosa Parks is best known: on December 1, 1955, she refused to surrender her seat to a white person on a Montgomery, Ala.,stet comma/rl city bus.

Rosa parks my story