Sheldon, yes.

I hadn't seen the arrest photo of Rosa Parks that appears on this page. I love the challenging expression on her face!

I do wish I'd had a chance to respond to Prof. Theoharis's misunderstanding, and borderline attack, on my call. I did not *remotely* intend to suggest that Ms. Parks's was, as segregationists et al. claimed, was a "plant." My point was to be clear that though there were a number of arrests prior to hers (i.e., Claudette Colvin), because of her activist background and known respectability hers was seen as an appropriate case to take up as a cause. Whether there was discussion of her specifically sitting down at some point, and she chose that moment, is virtually semantic. The reality is that there had been arrests, there had been strategic discussions, she was the right person for the reasons Prof. Theoharis stated, and history was made. My respect for her is immeasurable, and would have been had she been a "plant" or not. (And it is a different question whether being a "plant" is actually a negative thing.)

As to Becky's comment, in Prof. Theoharis's own book she quotes Parks as saying "People always say that I didn't get up because I was tired but hat isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. . . . No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.

Fuva, because she was darker skinned and had a kid. Justice is truly not color blind.

CALLER - please research and read history - this was NOT a plan! This was an exhausted WOMAN who worked a full day and refused to give her seat up to a white man. Damaging statements like that are part of the problem.

The communists did seek to use the injustice of the American racial system
cynically or not.

Why Claudette Colvin, who did it before Rosa, was not given the credit is a story onto itself.

I just realized that most people don't know that she was sitting in the BLACK section of the bus. The seat this Black woman refused to vacate for a white man was in the Black section. (Which means that there was some serendipity in the turn of events even with her freedom fighter background.)

Rosa Parks: American Patriot