Rosa Parks: A Tribute

She died peacefully at 92. She died last night Oct. 24th 2005.

Rosa Parks walked in no one else's shoes.

She was her own woman. A role model for the world.

She refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man.

She refused to bow to indignity. And never pretended to not understand.

I heard Rosa Parks say there were others also who were angry about the injustice

And others who acted against the system like she did but it was Rosa Parks

Actions on that day December 1, 1955 which set the spark that would bring

Martin Luther King to Montgomery to begin the Montgomery Bus Boycott and to lead

What has come to be known as the modern civil rights movement in the U.S.A.

I have a famous drawing of Rosa Parks sitting on the bus that fateful day that hangs in my office.

I want my students to know that Rosa Parks inspired me a long time ago. I am a white woman.

I want my students to know who my role model is, to know Rosa Parks is my inspiration.

She is the one that has kept me going, kept me staying out of the closet, being myself

All these years. I have looked at her picture and remember why I can be who I am.

Sharon Raphael