Tomorrow, Californians and Missourians will celebrate Rosa Parks Day, honoring the birthday of the civil rights icon—Feb. 4, 1913. A civil rights activist who organized alongside celebrated leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Parks is most widely known for her refusal to vacate her bus seat—located in the first row of the “colored” section of the bus—in favor of a standing white passenger, on Dec. 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Ala.
Her subsequent arrest kickstarted the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted 381 days. The NAACP seized upon her arrest as an opportunity to challenge Alabama segregation laws. Unfortunately, the Alabama courts held up her case long enough that another decision—Browder v. Gayle in 1956—ultimately ended bus segregation. In the meantime, Parks suffered for her act of defiance. Following her arrest, Parks was fired from her job. She continued to receive death threats for years, ultimately inspiring her and her husband to leave behind their lives in Montgomery and move to Michigan.
History, however, judged her act of resistance with acclaim. Dr. King called her a catalyst for the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement, and she received numerous awards throughout her life for her contributions to equality. Even at the moment of her arrest, Parks understood that she was acting not just on her own behalf, but on behalf of the entire African American community, asking the arresting officers, “Why do you push us around?”
Rosa Parks Day reminds us that acts of defiance can also be acts of courage when undertaken for the sake of others, and with the objective of creating a more just society. As more self-centered acts of defiance become more and more commonplace, we must remember the lessons of Rosa Parks, and ensure that when we choose defiance, we do so from selflessness, rather than selfishness.
— Rabbi Josh Knobel