2005年NPR美国国家公共电台九月-Civil Rights Icon Rosa Parks Dies

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She turned course of the American history by refusing to move from her seat on a bus. Rosa Parks, the woman known as the mother of civil rights movement died at her home last night. She was 92.NPR Cheryl Corley has this remembrance.

She was born Rosa Louise McCauley on Feb. 4th, 1913, and she married Raymond Parks in 1932. By the early 1950s, Rosa Parks and her now-deceased husband were long-time activists 2 in Montgomery Alabama's chapter of the NAACP.

Parks worked as a seamstress at a local department store, and on her way home from work one day, she engaged in a simple gesture of defiance 3 that galvanized the civil rights movement.

It was nearly 50 years ago, Dec. 1st, 1955, when Parks challenged the Montgomery's segregated 4 bus seating policy -- by refusing to get up and give her seat to a white passenger.

She told the story to NPR during an interview 25 years ago.

It was on the third stop when a few people got on and some white people got on and occupied the remaining vacant seats in the front of the bus. And there was one man left standing 5 and when the driver asked me if I was gonna stand up. I told him, no, I wasn't, and he said, well, if you don't stand up, I am going to have you arrested-- call the police and have you arrested.

When the police officer boarded the bus, Parks, who was 42, had one question for him: "I asked the policeman, I said,why do you push us around?' He said, 'I do not know, but the law is the law and you are under arrest.' "

Parks' grass-roots activism had prepared her for this moment. She had attended a session the summer before at the Highlander 6 Folk School, the educational center for workers' rights and racial equality in Tennessee. Several years earlier she had been thrown off a bus by the same bus driver.

There were other black women in Montgomery who were arrested in 1955 for violating the segregated busing policy. But this time, the black community fought back in force. The NAACP had been looking for a test case to challenge segregated busing and Parks agreed to let the group take her case.

The Woman's Political Council also called for a one day bus boycott 7. But the Parks' arrest triggered a boycott that lasted 381 days. The Montgomery bus boycott was organized by a then little-known Baptist minister Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. In an autobiography 8 called My Story. Rosa Parks said too often people thought she didn't get up that day because her feet were tired. During an interview with NPR 1984 Parks said that was not the case.

At that time I was not having any trouble of any kind with my feet. And of course anyone who works a full day at the type of job that i had would be weary. But that was not the utmost thing, the utmost thought in my mind was, it was time, it was far spent for all of us as a people to be treated as human beings.

Parks lost her job and had trouble finding work in Alabama after her public stance. She and her husband moved to Detroit. For many years she worked as an aide to Congressman 9 John Conyers, who says Parks was like a saint.

She was very humble 10, she was soft-spoken. But inside she had a determination that was quite fierce.

Rosa Parks remained a committed activist 1 working in the anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s and opening a career counseling centre for black youth in Detroit. She received numerous awards and in 1999, President Clinton presented her with the nation's highest civilian 11 honor, a Congressional Gold Medal. "We must never ever, when this ceremony is over, forget about the power of ordinary people to stand in the fire for the cause of human dignity,"

In her later years, Parks battled with entertainers and others over the use of her name.Attorney settled the lawsuit 12 this year that sought to prevent the hip-hop duo OutKast from using her name as a title of a song.In 1994,her home was invaded by a 28-year-old man who beat her and took 53 dollars. Parks was treated at a hospital and released. She was rarely seen in public after 2001.But nearly a decade earlier, in an interview with NPR, Parks said she believed that there were still obstacles to overcome. She wanted young people to understand their right and to be aware of the both current condition of black Americans as well as the suffering that occurred in the past.

And to be willing and ready to prepare themselves to the better education and dedication 13 to making conditions better for our people.

The mother of modern day civil rights movement Rosa Parks died in her Detroit home of natural causes. Her attorney said close friends were by her side.

Cheryl Corley, NPR News.