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The Mothers of the Civil Rights Movement Armstrong Williams As Americans, especially American blacks, began the celebration of the month of February as Black History Month, so often what is lost in this man-dominated society are the women who were the glue that kept the movement together. The male-dominated leadership of today has marked a sad decline.
During the heyday of the civil rights movement, our community leaders were not apt to become household names unless they accomplished greatness or something galvanizing. Now our leaders know that they achieve this perch by pumping us full of vitriol about how all the problems we face as a community are the result of other people's sins. They fill their speeches with the sort of racial rhetoric that shocks people into paying attention. And we have come to confuse the attention they receive with genuine leadership.
For this column, I would like to focus on Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King. But what about the great women like Dorothy Height, Betty Shabazz, Maya Angelou, Shirley Caesar, C. Delores Tucker, Lena Horne, Aretha Franklin and Shirley Chisholm? Why is it that we treasure and celebrate the memory of male civil rights leaders, but somehow forget the female leaders who helped the cause?
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Women like Rosa Parks changed the law in this land. That's not easy to do. Her steely resistance ignited a 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system. Lest anyone forget, that is how the civil rights movement in this country was born.
Parks spent the last years of her life alone and impoverished. Until Oprah Winfrey stepped in and moved her into a new home, Coretta Scott King seemed destined for the same fate. Last August, King suffered a stroke and a minor heart attack. The stroke caused mild paralysis on the right side of her body and left her unable to walk or speak. She fell into debt. Her neighborhood was becoming overrun with crime. She was mostly alone. Had not Oprah Winfrey stepped in, King might have died poor and alone.
How do we forget? How do we let the mothers of our human rights slip away into loneliness and poverty? Rosa Parks could not afford to pay her rent in the last few years of her life and was threatened with an eviction notice. Yet during her televised funeral and the testimonials on her behalf, one would believe that she was treated with that kind of respect and dignity in life. As I watched first hand the different speakers, I quietly whispered in many ways, what hypocrites.
Coretta Scott King is no less important. She is remembered as the 79-year-old widow of Martin Luther King Jr. But she has been a tireless advocate in her own right. King continued her husband's legacy by founding the King Center in Atlanta and educating people on the principles of nonviolent social change. Parks and King protested. They were willing to die. Yet, somehow, they were cast aside.
Mrs. King now sits at home alone. The visitors in many ways have ceased to come. Private sources tell me that she doesn't smile or communicate much anymore. And yet, if she were to die today, she would be treated in death as a head of state. But yet, now that she is not the flavor of the month in the press, she sits at home all alone.
I have often written that it is time for the movement to change. We are no longer victims of our skin color. Parks' struggle was to get a seat at the table. Now we need to talk about owning the table.
This is not to dismiss the importance of our continuing struggles. Nowhere is the gap larger than in education and violence. We can't ignore it when these areas are in crisis. But no longer can we just blame white people for these problems.
It is no longer the case that society refuses to grant blacks the basic rights that we associate with happiness. The civil rights movement allowed us to push into mainstream society. If we are to build on this progress – if we are to keep the civil rights movement alive – we must now focus on moving beyond the basic tenets of liberalism. We must get out of the mindset that the government must provide for us. We must shed the notions of victimhood. The real legacy of Mrs. King and Rosa Parks is that they put us in a position to take responsibility for ourselves.
But this does not mean we should forget. We cannot let the founders of this movement fade into history. Today's youth have no firsthand knowledge of the struggle and the civil rights movement. The median age of American blacks is 30. Have we lost touch? It is our duty to make sure they understand why it matters.
"Don't let it end with me," Rosa Parks often said. For her, for King, and for the countless others like them, we must pass it on.
www.armstrongwilliams.com
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