Freedom Fighters

In commemoration of the late Rosa Parks, born February 4, 1913, we reflect on her above quote.

On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks rejected bus driver James F. Blake's order to vacate a row of four seats in the "colored" section in favor of a White passenger, once the "white" section was filled.

Parks's act of defiance became an important symbol of the civil rights movement. She became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation, and organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr.

She has been honored by the US Congress as "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement." Upon her death in 2005, she was the first woman to lie in honor in the US Capitol Rotunda.

Freedom fighters are a well-known part of societies all over the world. Thirty years after Adam frees himself from servitude to the Plakerols in Adam in Taoland, he and his wife, Tari, return to Novana in Book II, Homeland Rescued. Their self-chosen mission is to help others living under the same oppression he existed in for the first twenty of his life. Just as Rosa Parks did, Adam saw the injustice and oppression of his people, took a stand, and decided to do all he could to liberate the people of Novana.

Rosa Parks says she “knew someone had to take the first step.” Let us be inspired by her active spirit in all such circumstances today. If you see something, say something. As a society we should no longer tolerate any sort of injustice, no matter its basis.