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Rosa Parks Was My Aunt. It's Time to Set the Record Straight [View all]
https://www.shondaland.com/inspire/a16022001/rosa-parks-was-my-aunt/
The quiet, tired seamstress caricature isn't her real story.
By Urana McCauley As Told To Liz Dwyer
FEB 4, 2019
This is how you know her: She was the tired seamstress who refused to give up her seat, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. Maybe you remember Rosa Parks as that quiet, older woman being honored at an awards show. Or maybe you remember seeing pictures of her shaking a President’s hand. But at this year’s Golden Globes, when Oprah Winfrey talked about Recy Taylor, a woman from Alabama who was kidnapped and raped by six white men, Oprah also did some myth-busting about my aunt with these words: "Her story was reported to the NAACP where a young worker by the name of Rosa Parks became the lead investigator on her case and together they sought justice."
I was excited when Oprah brought up Taylor's story because people need to know these things happened to black women. It’s our history. But it was also emotional for me to hear Oprah's words because she gave people the chance to see that Rosa Parks — my Auntie Rosa — was not just a tired old lady who sat down on a bus one day. Each Feb. 4 on my great aunt's birthday, I go to Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit to pay her my respects. But I also pay her my respects by refusing to let her legacy be turned into a caricature. I believe her story is more relevant than ever because she and people like her laid a foundation so that women today can be more vocal, can run for office, can demand equal rights and equal pay, and say we don't have to be harassed.
I regularly give presentations to organizations and schools about how tirelessly my aunt worked for justice and how she’d been heavily involved in civil rights work long before she refused to give up that seat. But, real talk, I didn't realize who my aunt really was until I was 19-years-old in 1995 and she took me to a NAACP event. People were screaming at her like she was Michael Jackson. "Oh my God, you're Rosa Parks." I had never witnessed that. The whole time Auntie Rosa was sitting there, like "Oh it's not a big deal." She was very humble.
I know, it sounds crazy that that whole time I didn't understand, but, you see, she was just my aunt in my life. She would come visit, or I would go visit her, and she would ask me the same questions your aunt probably asks you: "What do you want to eat? What do you want to drink? I made some lemonade — you want some? How's school? I talked to your grandmother and she says she ain't heard from you."
</snip>
The quiet, tired seamstress caricature isn't her real story.
By Urana McCauley As Told To Liz Dwyer
FEB 4, 2019
This is how you know her: She was the tired seamstress who refused to give up her seat, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. Maybe you remember Rosa Parks as that quiet, older woman being honored at an awards show. Or maybe you remember seeing pictures of her shaking a President’s hand. But at this year’s Golden Globes, when Oprah Winfrey talked about Recy Taylor, a woman from Alabama who was kidnapped and raped by six white men, Oprah also did some myth-busting about my aunt with these words: "Her story was reported to the NAACP where a young worker by the name of Rosa Parks became the lead investigator on her case and together they sought justice."
I was excited when Oprah brought up Taylor's story because people need to know these things happened to black women. It’s our history. But it was also emotional for me to hear Oprah's words because she gave people the chance to see that Rosa Parks — my Auntie Rosa — was not just a tired old lady who sat down on a bus one day. Each Feb. 4 on my great aunt's birthday, I go to Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit to pay her my respects. But I also pay her my respects by refusing to let her legacy be turned into a caricature. I believe her story is more relevant than ever because she and people like her laid a foundation so that women today can be more vocal, can run for office, can demand equal rights and equal pay, and say we don't have to be harassed.
She was an activist her whole life.
I regularly give presentations to organizations and schools about how tirelessly my aunt worked for justice and how she’d been heavily involved in civil rights work long before she refused to give up that seat. But, real talk, I didn't realize who my aunt really was until I was 19-years-old in 1995 and she took me to a NAACP event. People were screaming at her like she was Michael Jackson. "Oh my God, you're Rosa Parks." I had never witnessed that. The whole time Auntie Rosa was sitting there, like "Oh it's not a big deal." She was very humble.
I know, it sounds crazy that that whole time I didn't understand, but, you see, she was just my aunt in my life. She would come visit, or I would go visit her, and she would ask me the same questions your aunt probably asks you: "What do you want to eat? What do you want to drink? I made some lemonade — you want some? How's school? I talked to your grandmother and she says she ain't heard from you."
</snip>
Nice article about an American Hero.
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