In the face of odds we often witness people succumbing, but the ones who don't relent become torchbearers of humanity. These are the real heroes, hope for society whose selfless conduct change the course of history. Such people have broken old myths, orthodoxy customs and ushered in light of knowledge and bestowed honor and dignity to helpless through their courage and sacrifice . These heroes have transformed society and have inspired generations. Today, i have the privilege to write about two such stalwarts of history.
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (1913—2005) was an African American civil rights activist. Through a simple act of refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus in 1955, helped initiate the civil rights movement in the United States. During those days, segregation was written into Montgomery law; the front of a Montgomery bus was reserved for white citizens, and the seats behind them for black citizens. Black residents of Montgomery often avoided municipal buses as much as possible as they find it demeaning to travel by bus. On Thursday, December 1, 1955, the 42-year-old Rosa Parks was commuting home from a long day of work at the Montgomery Fair department store by bus.
Nonetheless, at one point on the route, a white man had no seat because all the seats in the designated “white” section were taken. So the driver told the riders in the four seats of the first row of the “colored” section to stand, in effect adding another row to the “white” section. The three others obeyed. Parks did not. Her refusal to vacate seat led to her arrest which sparked wave of civil disobedience movement. The leaders of the local black community organized a bus boycott that lasted more than a year and ended only when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that bus segregation was unconstitutional.
"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, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in"
Rosa Parks became a nationally recognized symbol of dignity and symbol of strength in the struggle to end entrenched racial segregation. The United States Congress called "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".
Ruby Bridges :-
A 6 year old girl in USA was chosen by destiny to radically transform society. Ruby Bridges, who in 1960 as a 6-year-old became the first black child to attend an all-white school in New Orleans and thus helped end public school segregation in Louisiana during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis in 1960. The bravery of one small girl against all impediments led to integration in public schools.
Such was the innocence of the little girl that she she didn't realize at the time the role she was playing in helping end segregation. She mistook the loud crowds that gathered daily outside the school protesting her inclusion as were taking part in some sort of parade, such as Mardis Gras, and they didn't frighten her. The relentless refusal to be intimidated by violent loud mouth or some extreme bigots who promised to poison her food etc. she firmly held her ground without wilting. In one such instance woman at the school put a black baby doll in a wooden coffin and protested with it outside the school, a sight that Bridges Hall has said "scared me more than the nasty things people screamed at us."
Abuses and racial slurs notwithstanding the two iron ladies above have displayed unmatched courage and determination to stand for the right. These iconic figures have helped in radically reshaping society for better. The rigid social customs were mental blocks that have subdued human race for long and few courageous people take it upon themselves to free society from tormentors and social evils.
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