Publisher: Guardian Newspaper
Author: Peter Haine
Date: 20 January 2014
Article: Be it Nazi Germany or apartheid South Africa we must thank the few who resist
Summary: To highlight the bravery of individuals in challenging oppression.
Purpose: Slow build electioneering strategy for 2015
Quote:
“Discovering why only a minority of people actively resist adversity, in any country, at any time, even when injustice stares them in the face or affects them directly, can be tantalising... Sometimes, individuals have simply had enough, such as Rosa Parks, a black American seamstress. Having travelled all her life on segregated buses in the Deep South, in 1955, on an impulse, she refused to give up her seat for a white passenger, triggering a wave of non-violent protests, which led to the great civil rights movement.”
Whilst Peter Hain may mean well with his simplistic portrait of those that resist oppression, despite his own activism he makes the same mistakes of many who champion change from the sidelines with empathy, not experience. Rosa Parkes was not a little old ‘black’ lady that one day had enough of naughty ‘whites’, she was an African activist who as a member of the NAACP deliberately and frequently resisted segregation on American buses. She had been arrested a year earlier for the same action. Just like Claudette Colvin nine months before her. Indeed in the UK we have a similar tale with Paul Stephenson and the Bristol Bus Boycott. It is always disappointing to read of the strategic actions of activists being collapsed into more convenient narratives. Their actions only deemed to be of value when stated to be significant by members of the oppressing group. This manipulation of historical facts often diminishes the complex ideals of those engaged in resistance.
Claims of recognising the value of sacrifice has greater weight when we admit those making it are fully cognisant of the risks they are taking and are driven by conscience and spirit, not mere impulse.
External Links
Be it Nazi Germany or apartheid South Africa we must thank the few who resistThe Other Rosa Parks: Now 73, Claudette Colvin Was First to Refuse Giving Up Seat on Montgomery BusBefore Rosa Parks, There Was Claudette ColvinNAACP Histpory - Rosa ParkesBrowder v. Gayle: The Women Before Rosa Parks
Author: Peter Haine
Date: 20 January 2014
Article: Be it Nazi Germany or apartheid South Africa we must thank the few who resist
Summary: To highlight the bravery of individuals in challenging oppression.
Purpose: Slow build electioneering strategy for 2015
Quote:
“Discovering why only a minority of people actively resist adversity, in any country, at any time, even when injustice stares them in the face or affects them directly, can be tantalising... Sometimes, individuals have simply had enough, such as Rosa Parks, a black American seamstress. Having travelled all her life on segregated buses in the Deep South, in 1955, on an impulse, she refused to give up her seat for a white passenger, triggering a wave of non-violent protests, which led to the great civil rights movement.”
Rosa Parkes: African Freedom Fighter and NAACP member
Ligali Response
Whilst Peter Hain may mean well with his simplistic portrait of those that resist oppression, despite his own activism he makes the same mistakes of many who champion change from the sidelines with empathy, not experience. Rosa Parkes was not a little old ‘black’ lady that one day had enough of naughty ‘whites’, she was an African activist who as a member of the NAACP deliberately and frequently resisted segregation on American buses. She had been arrested a year earlier for the same action. Just like Claudette Colvin nine months before her. Indeed in the UK we have a similar tale with Paul Stephenson and the Bristol Bus Boycott. It is always disappointing to read of the strategic actions of activists being collapsed into more convenient narratives. Their actions only deemed to be of value when stated to be significant by members of the oppressing group. This manipulation of historical facts often diminishes the complex ideals of those engaged in resistance. Claims of recognising the value of sacrifice has greater weight when we admit those making it are fully cognisant of the risks they are taking and are driven by conscience and spirit, not mere impulse.
Claudette Colvin: African Freedom Fighter
External Links
Be it Nazi Germany or apartheid South Africa we must thank the few who resistThe Other Rosa Parks: Now 73, Claudette Colvin Was First to Refuse Giving Up Seat on Montgomery BusBefore Rosa Parks, There Was Claudette ColvinNAACP Histpory - Rosa ParkesBrowder v. Gayle: The Women Before Rosa Parks
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Speak Out!
Click here to speak out or read (1) comments about this articleRosa Parkes was not a little old ‘black’ lady that one day had enough of naughty ‘whites’, she was an African activist who as a member of the NAACP deliberately and frequently resisted segregation
Toyin Agbetu, Ligali Organisation
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