Rosa Parks, born on 4th February 1913, was a seamstress. She became an enduring symbol of the struggle for civil rights and equality. She continued her activism throughout her life, advocating for racial and social justice. The revolutionary acts in history have been ushered by people who dared to stand against injustice. On one such occasion, Rosa Parks entered into the annals of history on December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, in the United States, when she defied the racist laws of the time and refused to give her seat to a white man.

The law in Alabama state segregated spaces on buses between whites and people of color. Her act of civil disobedience triggered the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a year-long protest against racial segregation on public transportation. Parks' courageous stance and the subsequent boycott, led by figures like Martin Luther King Jr., proved to be a lightning rod in the American Civil Rights Movement. The boycott led to a Supreme Court ruling in the case of Browder v. Gayle that declared segregation in public buses unconstitutional in 1956.

Rosa Parks became an enduring symbol of the struggle for civil rights and equality. She continued her activism throughout her life, advocating for racial and social justice. Parks received numerous awards and honours for her contributions to the civil rights movement and left a lasting legacy as a symbol of courage and resistance against racial injustice.

The irony of the struggles in India and the US

While Rosa Parks' defiance against racial laws in the United States metamorphosed into a revolution, resistance against caste atrocity in India is often met with violence. It is often observed that members of the Dalit community are beaten if they violate feudal norms, such as riding a mare during a wedding, drawing water from wells, or entering a temple. Notably, the irony is that the law in India provides for stringent punishment against untouchability and atrocity, whereas the bus segregation that Rosa violated was a law in the state in 1955. Rosa Parks died in 2005. Many states across the US observe 1st December as Rosa Parks Day to celebrate the memory of racial resistance. The Rosa Parks Story, released in 2002, is a film made on the struggles.