One week after Rosa Parks' death, students and professors continue to reflect on the life and legacy of one of the leaders of the U.S. civil rights movement of the '50s and '60s.
Parks, famous for her refusal 50 years ago to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man during the time of segregation, died last Monday in her Detroit home of natural causes. She was 92.
Parks is credited for influencing others to join the fight to end segregation.
"It was Rosa Parks' action that inspired Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who at that time was a young pastor in Montgomery, Alabama," said Steven Taylor, an associate professor of government in the School of Public Affairs. "Local ministers such as Dr. King, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and Rev. Ralph Abernathy were encouraged and emboldened by the action of this demure seamstress of unspeakable bravery."
Aside from her famous bus ride, Parks contributed in other ways to the fight for civil rights and had a major impact on the movement.
"Mrs. Parks contributed to the civil rights movement on the local level in Montgomery and Detroit," Taylor said. "Mrs. Parks also contributed throughout the remainder of the 20th century by traveling, speaking and encouraging other people to take the brave steps necessary to effect needed change."
Upon hearing of Parks' death, Viola Irvin, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she was shocked at first.
"But then I realized she was old," Irvin said. "I was more surprised that people didn't seem to care or notice. I think she's sometimes undervalued, but she truly did great things for the progression of blacks."
An open casket memorial service was held for Parks Saturday in Montgomery, Ala. Thousands of mourners attended the service, just miles away from the downtown street where Parks made headlines by saying "no" when asked to give a white man her seat on a public bus.
"She showed the power that regular people have to make a change," said Mark Cowans, a junior in SPA. "It's not all about making speeches - sometimes you have to show you deserve respect before others give it to you."
Parks' body will lie in the Capitol Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Sunday and Monday. She will be the first woman and second African-American to have this honor.
"I think that Rosa Parks was an extremely influential part of the civil rights movement. Her pioneering act of civil disobedience paved the way for others to lead lives that civil rights activists during her time never imagined," said Alvester Walker, a senior in CAS.
