On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, to return home from her work as a seamstress. Like all blacks who rode buses in the South in those days, she paid her fare up front and then backed out of the bus and went to the back door that opened into the “Colored” section. Paying up front and walking to the back would have meant passing through the “White” section – something that was strictly forbidden. Finding the “Colored” section full, she took a seat in the neutral zone, a few rows in the middle that were designated either way, depending on the load.
When the bus filled up on subsequent stops, the driver ordered her out of the neutral section to make room for in-coming white passengers. When Mrs. Parks stayed put, he warned her, “I’ll call the police.”
“Do what you must,” Mrs. Parks replied quietly.
Rosa’s defiance was not premeditated. She wasn’t intending on becoming one of the central figures of the civil rights movement. She wasn’t even thinking about protesting and going to jail if necessary. She was merely responding to a sense of justice inside her that said it was wrong for her to have to move for another person based solely on the color of her skin.
The bus driver did call the police, and Rosa Parks was arrested and taken off the bus, and when the rest of the black community heard about it, there was a massive boycotting of public transportation in Montgomery that lasted almost a year until the laws were finally changed by a Supreme Court ruling.
That decision was cemented by a speech not long after Rosa’s arrest by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., in which he stated, “We will stay off the buses. We will walk until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.” (Amos 5:24)
Though the civil rights movement was in full swing when I was in high school and college, I never got it. As a Christian growing up evangelical, we were so focused on people’s eternal salvation that we missed the importance of their quality of life here and now. The whole idea of justice didn’t register with me, even though I sang Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary songs all about it. And yet to read the scriptures – Old and New Testaments both – is to realize God is as concerned about justice as he is about salvation. We need to pay more attention to the conditions surrounding the daily lives of all people in society. We need to ask ourselves, what are the examples of injustice around us today?
It’s the hammer of justice
It’s the bell of freedom
It’s the song about love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land
– Pete Seeger, Lee Hays
John Fischer The Catch 
Mrs. Parks chose to make a point in her defiance of an unjust law. However, it was an event planned by the leaders of the Civil Rights movement in Montgomery. The planners included her husband as well as a local pastor, Martin Luther King, Jr. This does not take away from the boldness of the effort. It simply reminds us that not all events are “spontaneous”.
I would like to know how the evidence of this “plan” is documented. I have not seen this in my study.
The big three: justice, kindness, and humility. My guess is that these “qualities” probably initially occur in our human experience in reverse order—by God’s grace, apart from which we naturally have none.
Micah 6:8
He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?
Many of us remember, along with John Fischer’s own songs from the early days of contemporary Christian music, the early praise song by the Maranatha Singers based on the above verse.
Thanks for reminding us of this passage. This is so important.
John, I am SO glad to hear you say that you never got it!! I grew up in Alabama when and where it was all happening and I just never got it… Looking back I sometimes wonder how I could have been so blind but, ……..I just didn’t see it!
Was it because we didn’t personally know someone who was struggling with injustice? That was the case with me. I was too far removed.
That’s probably it, we didn’t know anyone who was struggling. The only black people that I knew very well seemed very happy. We had a cabin on the back waters in the late forties or early fifties. I don’t remember how the friendship began but we became friends with the black family who lived nearby. I can remember visiting them at their home with my parents. I was around 8 or 10 years old, not a baby, but they would sit me up in the middle of a tall half bed that had a white bedspread on it. One of the family members played the organ that was on the other side of the room and the rest of the family sang and sang. They sang what I now recognize as Negro Spirituals. One song I remember was Children Go Where I Send Thee ….one for a little bitty baby…. two for Paul and Silas. I can still hear their beautiful harmony on that one.
Lovely.
Inspiring.
Those words from “If I had a Hammer” really brought back memories from when I sang with a “folk” group in college. Thanks for the memories.
I am a Christ follower, and have been since 1989. I have two daughters, raised in a Christ following home. One is gay and one is not. I love them as any other mother would love their children. Tell me when we will see justice for the gay and lesbian community? We must lay down these prejudices at the foot of the cross.
The Greatest Commandment, Matthew 22:37-39
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
What more needs to be said?
Thank you.
@ Pat
I am an Alabama native as well. I was too young at the time to have noticed (or cared) what was going on in my limited “world.” Later in life I learned that prejudices (including injustices) stem from our perspective of the world (“world view”) and the beliefs and convictions that arise from that perspective. Now—and for the past 34 years—from a Christian world view and beliefs, things appear quite different.
This is a great reminder! By the way, Focus on the Family is having a conference this weekend called “Life and Justice” to be an advocate for the elderly, the preborn, those in human trafficking, the orphans, children in foster care and those with special needs. We are all the same in HIS eyes!
Preach it brother!!! It’s an injustice that some Christians give the world such a bad view of Christianity, no wonder people don’t want to be one. (I’m talking about myself as well).
John, you and I are the same age, and I certainly could have written the last paragraph. Why didn’t we “get it?” I don’t think it is because we did not know anyone personally who was suffering injustice, because inequality was clearly evident everywhere. There was not as much media attention, but I don’t think that is a valid excuse either. We did sing the songs, but where was our passion and compassion? I could blame my church leadership for lack of interest, but that is clearly a cop-out. I think I simply put my head in the sand and went merrily along with my life.