i am sassa

At the risk of exposing my ignorance, I admit I have had an incorrect image of Rosa Parks in my mind my whole life. On hearing her name, I’ve always pictured a tired little old(ish) lady with sore feet on the bus after a long days work. I had heard of the bus boycott that ensued after she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger, but I never really pictured her being in the thick of it. I guess I thought her actions were the catalyst and that was that. I don’t know where that image comes from, but apparently it’s a common misconception.

Rosa said early in an interview I listened to while painting today that she did not, in fact, have sore feet. I felt like she was talking right to me. Who even told me that and why is that a thing people think? And she wasn’t tired-except for being tired of being mistreated for the color of her skin. And maybe a little tired of the sore feet stereotype. I really like her matter of fact way of speaking.

Rosa was not an old lady on the bus. She was forty-two. She worked as a seamstress at a department store, and was on her way home when she famously declined to vacate her seat. She was also technically in the “colored” section. (Ew). But when the bus got crowded, the bus driver decided to switch up the rules and scoot that section back. Nope, she said. Stuff it (Loosely paraphrasing here). The asshole bus driver called the cops and she was arrested.

You can find her arrest records here. Apparently she was not the first to be arrested for this. As a respected member of the NAACP, however, her arrest was the perfect spark to ignite what would become the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Big side note: MLK, Jr. was a 26 year old minister at the time, and he emerged from the boycott a leader.

Though I have zero clue where my notions about her originated, I find it unsettling that I was so wrong about her. I’ve been asked by two reporters in the last few days “Why women”? This is why. Because history has a way, even in the most famous cases, of downplaying and minimizing the contributions of women, and I wanted to seek the truth about them for myself.

Thank you, Rosa Parks.