Rosa Parks did an important thing that day on the bus, but a group she was in had discussed and planned the action long before the event. What Rosa Parks did was not one desperate stand by one weary Black woman, but a calculated decision backed by many supporters.
It was an action well past its time to take. I spent some time in and around Little Rock, AR during the late 50's and I was aghast at the "Separate but Equal" position taken at that time! Black schools were nowhere near equal to White-only schools. Black housing areas, Black entrances to shops, Blacks not being allowed to walk on the same sidewalk as whites. The conditions of that (in-)'Equality' were outrageous.
As a youngster, I walked through part of Little Rock with my brother. We watched as two large men walked toward us along a narrow sidewalk. As we were trained, we politely stepped aside for them to pass and were surprised to see the two men step off the sidewalk and into the street as they went by us. I asked Dad about the incident and he said that in the South, the Black men would have risked a beating or worse by walking past white children. Years later, I wonder if our attempt at good manners and stepping aside was seen by them as fear of them or well-taught prejudice toward them as Blacks?
And not only in the South, was this happening. A man I dearly loved and admired owned the soda fountain across the street from my home. He taught me so much and listened to this child's problems for many, many years. One day a Black man stopped in for a hamburger. After he left my friend laughed and said, "I put so much pepper in on that burger, he'll never stop here again." I was crushed! My rose-colored glasses were damaged. An adult had ordered and paid for a meal and the store owner deliberately ruined it? I could never feel the same about Phil again and once I started looking, I found so many slights toward Blacks that spoke of deep-seated bigotry.
My first adult job was as a factory worker. One night after working late I stopped for a snack at "Chicken Charlie's" (a dive with really good food). It was just after bar time and the customers were mostly looking for coffee before driving home. In the corner I spotted an older co-worker who had also just gotten off work, so I went over to sit with him.
He was smiling and polite (as always) but uncomfortable as he warned me that I shouldn't be sitting with a Black man. That had never occurred to me. I was tired and hungry and he was a friend in a room full of rude, noisy, and obnoxious mostly white strangers!
I'm not saying Rosa Parks wasn't brave or that there weren't risks involved, but certainly not on a level with Harriet Tubman's challenges. Still, the media bring up Rosa Parks' name and stand often. To my knowledge, I was the only American history teacher around who taught about the incredible life of Harriet Tubman, so only a few students each year understood the unjustness of slavery and the greatness of Harriet Tubman's life as I saw it.