Griffin Speaks
A TRIBUTE TO A LEGEND
So
much has been written and said about the life and death of Mrs. Rosa Parks
that I will be brief and to the point in my tribute to this American hero.
I
am very pleased with all of the attention and tributes that have been
bestowed upon Mrs. Parks.
Debra,
the kids and I all went and paid our respect to Mrs. Parks on Saturday,
October 29th, 2005 as her body laid in honor at St. Paul AME
Church. I was very pleased with the large crowd of persons who turned out to
pay their final respects.
Myth
has it that Mrs. Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat to a white man
was the spark which lit the fuse of the Montgomery Bus Boycott out of which
came the modern day Civil Rights movement. Truth be told. If there had been
no E. D. Nixon the world would have never known Martin Luther King Jr. or
Rosa Parks. It was E. D. Nixon who selected Rosa Parks for the attention
when she was jailed. It was E. D. Nixon that requested that Martin Luther
King Jr. host a boycott at his church. It was at that meeting that Martin
Luther King was put at the head of the movement.
E.
D. Nixon was born on July 12, 1899. He was a trade union leader and close a
ssociate
of A. Phillip Randolph. He became president of the Voters League of
Montgomery in 1944. He was also the leader of the NAACP in Alabama. He died
on February 25, 1987 at the age of 87. It was at his funeral on March 3,
1987 at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama that I first
met Mrs. Rosa Parks.
Greg
Griffin is a free lance writer. You can read his previous articles by
visiting his web page at www.greggriffin.com
