5.1 Introducing Rosa Parks

The United States of the 20th century was a hostile place for Black people, particularly its southern states, those that had pioneered and defended slavery. Public spaces and private businesses were segregated, with buses being a visible example. Black people had to sit at the back of the bus, so white people could sit at the front. However, when the white zone was full, white people were entitled to eject Black people from their seats. They could also eject Black people sitting in the same row, as sitting alongside one another could – in the minds of racist legislators and enforcers of the law – signal dangerous ideas of equality.

While racism is still common in the US (and UK), major breakthroughs made by the civil rights movement from the 1950s secured victories against white power holders. The fabric of US civil rights is woven from many threads, but one that stands out is the leadership of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott.

In school, many of us are taught that Rosa Parks was an older, apolitical, church-going seamstress from Montgomery, Alabama, who, being tired one evening after a hard day’s work, refused to vacate her seat on the bus and was arrested by police. This solitary, one-off act on 1 December 1955, we are taught, started a cascade of resistance, beginning with a city-wide boycott of buses by Black residents. The boycott lasted over a year, coming to an end when the Supreme Court ruled on the illegality of bus segregation. Along the way, the Parks story had inspired a nation to act against racial segregation. It is an inspirational story, one that appeals to people’s sense of a universal goodness overcoming hate. However, the way the story is commonly told, with regards to Rosa Parks herself and the role of women in the bus boycott, is usually wrong or partial in important ways, and understanding how and why can help unearth important dynamics of leadership.