Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat because she was tired?

[Flagg]

I've always been a fan of the Rosa Parks Story. I don't mean to trivialize it with the word fan; that's the best way I can think to describe it. I don't know all that much about it and think I may be responding more to popular ideas or legends about her than anything.

I have been guilty in the past of spreading what I now believe to be false; the story that she took the front seat on that bus simply because she was tired: she was a seamstress who worked all day, there were no seats for her, and she just wanted to sit down. This is a common idea, (at least I've heard it repeated often) and I admit sort of a 'neat' one (an old woman starts a movement not because she means to but because she is tired and just isn't putting up with it anymore) but from my meager web research it seems to be wrong.

I've also found some conflict about the bus seating laws from that time. I have read that she took a seat at the front (white only) part of the bus because there were no other seats available and was asked to move, and also that she sat a few rows back where it was legal for blacks to sit, but was asked to give up her seat to a white person when the white section filled and she refused.

I don't want to be wrong about someone I consider one of America's coolest people. (no frivolity intended)

I didn't mean this post to be this long. I meant to post this to ask if other snopesters considered, "Rosa parks refused to give up her seat because she was tired," to be an urban legend. (as opposed to she refused to give it up because she wanted to stand up for equality)

Thanks.

[Beachlife!]

I'm pretty sure Rosa Parks has said she was tired that day, but she has also clarified that she was tired of being oppresed by white man not physically tired.

[Mad Jay]

Wikipedia has quite a bit of information

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.

[Flagg]

Originally Posted by Beachlife!

I'm pretty sure Rosa Parks has said she was tired that day, but she has also clarified that she was tired of being oppresed by white man not physically tired.

I have to apologize, I read back through my post and I wasn't clear, I do that a lot.

I know what you are saying is true. I meant to say I used to spread the idea that she gave it up because she was physically tired. I now know it isn't true. I was asking if the idea that she gave her seat up because she was physically tired is a common enough (false) idea that it is gaining or has achieved urban legend status.

[rhiandmoi]

I have also read (was this discussed here?) that the Rosa Parks incident was a "plant". She was chosen to because she would be a sympathetic face to attach to the civil rights movement.

What I could find with a quick google:
http://alaskapride.blogspot.com/2007...bout-rosa.html

[HazyCosmicJive]

Originally Posted by Flagg

I have to apologize, I read back through my post and I wasn't clear, I do that a lot.

I know what you are saying is true. I meant to say I used to spread the idea that she gave it up because she was physically tired. I now know it isn't true. I was asking if the idea that she gave her seat up because she was physically tired is a common enough (false) idea that it is gaining or has achieved urban legend status.

Anecdote != data, but for whatever it's worth, I have only heard the story with Rosa as an activist, deliberately refusing to give up her seat to make a statement.

Originally Posted by rhiandmoi

I have also read (was this discussed here?) that the Rosa Parks incident was a "plant". She was chosen to because she would be a sympathetic face to attach to the civil rights movement.

What I could find with a quick google:
http://alaskapride.blogspot.com/2007...bout-rosa.html

This is partially true. Rosa Parks was not the first black, much less black woman to refuse to give up her seat within the past few months leading up to the incident, but the previous possible lightning rods were judged by the various organizations that took up Rosa's fight to be too controversial, most of them being men who, because they were black males in the south, had criminal records. The only other woman of note I have been able to find was ruled out two weeks before Rosa because she was pregnant out of wedlock and that was seen, probably accurately, as too much baggage for the keystone to the beginning of a crusade.

That said, while Rosa was active in civil rights movements on a low level, she was in no way shape or form a plant. She was not ordered to do what she did, what she did was not planned, either by her to draw attention or to serve as a lightning rod, nor by anyone else for any purpose, and what came out of it was not part of a larger operation but merely taking advantage of a golden opportunity presented by an active citizen.

I have heard this version also, and if she sat down because she was tired, good for her.

It makes her no less of a hero to me.

[Ali Infree]

The alaskapride blog entry puts an extreme right wing twist to Rosa Park's story. I don't get the point of doing that--is it that only Communists were interested in civil rights in 1955? Not the case at all, the US military was integrated after WWII. The 1948 Democratic Convention witnessed the Dixiecrat withdrawal over civil rights planks in the party platform.

That said, certainly Myles Horton was politically progressive, and the Highlander Center is still active in promoting leadership. In Tennessee, at that time, Highlander entailed controversy. The center was closed at one time for selling beer without a license when it was discovered that a refrigerator that had beer in it also had a donation can to replenish the supply. This description of Myles Horton as a Communist is much like the current usage of calling Barack Obama a leftist, just an ad homenin attack.

I agree that rather than making Rosa Parks a singular person who took action, it is important to note that she was an actvist and a leader. This teaches an important lesson and does not lessen the bravery of her act. BTW, to the best of my knowledge, MLK was already a minister in Montgomery, not someone coming in days after the event to take advantage of it. The fact that she moved to Detroit after the boycott has always suggested to me that she was brave and realistic.

Ali "white man's burden" Infree

[Thera]

I had heard that she was a plant as well, they planned that thing well in advance.

[Four Kitties]

Parks-a-chow

[ASL]

Originally Posted by Ali Infree

The alaskapride blog entry puts an extreme right wing twist to Rosa Park's story. I don't get the point of doing that--is it that only Communists were interested in civil rights in 1955? Not the case at all, the US military was integrated after WWII. The 1948 Democratic Convention witnessed the Dixiecrat withdrawal over civil rights planks in the party platform.

Surely you'll recall that by the 1950's, even the military wasn't safe from being accused of harboring Communists?

[Ali Infree]

Originally Posted by ASL

Surely you'll recall that by the 1950's, even the military wasn't safe from being accused of harboring Communists?

Actually, I am not that old!

Ali "do remember Hound Dog as a radio hit" Infree