In 1950, the action of one individual in Montgomery, Alabama began a movement that would forever change the course of our nation. Rosa Parks, a 42 year older Black seamstress, refused to give up her seat to a White man and move to the back of a city bus. She was subsequently arrested and jailed. Her action, as history now denotes, was not about a seat on the bus but respect as an American citizen. The genesis was not revolution but restoration. The restoration of rights granted by the Almighty and codified within the mission statement of His nation of freedom: to be respected, valued and treated equally.
Throughout the early 1900’s, the Democratic Party wielded its political power throughout the South with fear and retribution. The Party’s Jim Crow laws dictated every aspect of interaction between Black and White Americans with the goal to minimize any influence Black people could have within the collective community. From segregated schools, businesses, neighborhoods, restrooms, and transportation to the most mundane actions, ie: drinking from separate water fountains, these demeaning edicts were controlled by politicians with a lust for power and a disdain for empathy.
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