Reply #42: not to diminish her actions, but you do know her story don't you? [View All]

the seamstress too tired to move after a hard day at work is only part of the story. She was an activist and part time secretary for the NAACP. Black activists wanted to boycott the buses but needed a "defendant" to rally around. They were looking for the perfect person who refused to give up her seat (they didn't consider a man, the record is they were looking for a woman). Several women had done the same thing as Roas that year but for one reason or another, would not make a good point person (one young woman was pregnant but not married, one was not mentally stable) finally Rosa refused. Having read a few historical accounts of the strike, if she was not put up to it, she probably "conspired" to be the one.

And MLK was the "face" of the strike because he was new in town. There was, as so often is the case, some politics involved in and among the leaders of the black churches, several of them wanted to be the leader, the spokesperson. Which had made them ineffective at organization. MLK had gotten a new gig in town as pastor and wasn't yet aligned with one side or the other yet. They were all able to agree on him as the compromise mostly because no one knew him.

It would have come, just maybe in a different way, had it not been for so many odd little quirks of history.