Friday, November 4, 2005

Rosa Parks has gone to glory; don't forget her message

By Betty DeRamus / The Detroit News

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Nobody can say civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks didn't ride home to glory in high style. Too bad her funeral was partly marred by folks who forgot that it was a people's celebration, not an ego show.

Seven hours? Come on. All the saints in heaven could have shaken Rosa Parks' hand in that time. Did we really need to hear from half the politicians in Washington, D.C., and Michigan?

U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Detroit, gave Parks a job after she moved to Detroit, and he had a chance to watch her charm his constituents with her soft but steely spirit.

Couldn't he have spoken for that whole procession? On the other hand, wouldn't it have been sweet to hear from more of the people who, in the words of a speech once given by the late Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Myron Wahls, "broke bread on segregated plates and drank from designated fountains, entered through the back door and finally emerged through the front door."

A glorious spectacle

To his credit, the Rev. Jesse Jackson mentioned Claudette Colvin in his eulogy and asked if she were present. What a speech she might possibly have given.

She was, after all, one of the four black Montgomery women who refused to surrender their bus seats to whites in the months before Parks made her far more famous stand.

Still, for all its flaws, Parks' final send-off was a glorious spectacle. But it was for us, not Rosa Parks.

She'd already flown away, but we weren't ready to release her gentle spirit.

Maybe we needed to keep her with us for a few more hours while we remembered how well she represented an era of great drama and large achievements.

And maybe now that her story has been so completely told children will no longer snicker when they hear Cedric the Entertainer's character in the movie "Barbershop" dismiss Rosa Parks as someone who did nothing but sit on her rear.

Maybe all those words from passionate speakers finally made it clear what courage it took for a small black woman to stand up to an often deadly system.

Maybe more people finally understand that she started a chain reaction that created so many admirable leaders and legislation.

Wish list grows

I just wish every dignitary who spoke at Parks' funeral had thanked her while she was alive.

I just wish financial troubles hadn't sometimes battered the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, co-founded by Parks and her caretaker, Elaine Steele.

I just wish that all those funeral wreaths and flowers represented checks written to help Rosa Parks in her later years.

And I just wish that everyone who viewed Parks' body or attended her funeral would pledge to march away from drugs and crime, embrace education and vote for truth.

I think Rosa Parks would like that even more than snatches of poetry, soaring songs, a parade of speakers and a white hearse carrying her home.

Betty DeRamus' column runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday in Metro. Reach her at (313) 222-2296 or bderamus@detnews.com.