It was standing room only on the bus. I’d gotten on earlier so I had a seat, near the front, and a woman who’d just gotten on was standing next to me. She was holding the overhead strap with one hand and a cane with the other. I stood up and offered her my seat.
“Thank you,” she said. “You’re a very polite young man.”
“It’s the way my grandmother raised me,” I said, and then felt ridiculous for saying that. I never rode the bus with my grandmother. I can’t even remember riding the bus with my parents. They may never have taught me public transportation etiquette but my grandmother and parents did teach me basic rules of courtesy, and so did teachers and a lot of other adults around me and other people.
The point is there was no single person who influenced me, something I think about whenever I think about the story of Rosa Parks. She helped prompt major changes, but she didn’t do it alone. Before she took a stand on a Montgomery bus she was already working with civil rights leaders. She was secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP and met Martin Luther King, Jr. Her decision to defy an order to give up her seat to a white passenger wasn’t spontaneous; she was deliberately acting on principle, which, I think, is even braver than a spontaneous act.
The woman whom I gave my seat on the bus was African American, and, as I said, she had a cane. I thought she needed the seat more than I did, but I also thought about how, not that long ago, within her lifetime, she would have been required to give up her seat if I, a white man, had asked her to move. I thought about how, right then, she didn’t ask me, or anyone else, to give up a seat so she could sit down. I don’t want to be presumptuous; I don’t know what her story really is, but it’s possible, even likely, that experience had taught her not to expect someone like me to give up a seat on the bus for her even if she needed it more. I wonder if, if I’d been brought up in an earlier era if I would have been willing to give up my seat on the bus. I wonder if I would have realized it wasn’t “my seat” but really a seat, open to anyone, but that in the interests of a better world it should be available to anyone, and priority should be given to those who need it most.
It’s difficult for me to talk about this even though these are things I think about a lot, and not just on days like today. It’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day today, a day when people remember and celebrate his legacy. And it deserves to be remembered and celebrated, and the work he did should be continued, and, as part of that, I think all those he influenced, all those who worked with him, also need to be remembered.
You changed your font?!?!? Or did I just figure out how to make it easier to read? Your actions just made my pre coffee Monday mood float out the window. 🙂
I changed the font at least for that post. It’s very frustrating that I can’t make it a permanent change but when I remember to I can adjust the font size manually. And I want to make everything easy. Let me get you some coffee.
Now I have to figure out why I am appearing as anonymous….
I think a fella like you would have given up your seat for another who needed it most, even when it wasn’t society’s way. Some of us, and I do include myself, don’t worry what society thinks about fair or unfair, we judge with our own impartial bias. Rosa would not have been famous if we were on that bus. 😉
Yes, there are good people even at the darkest of times. And there’s a recent Doctor Who episode about Rosa Parks. It’s serious and thought-provoking, but it’s also pretty funny how much trouble the Doctor and her companions go to just to make sure Rosa Parks gets on that specific bus at that specific time.
I’m still no one :(… btw it’s grace
Hey, you’re never no one. Not to me, anyway.
Thanks for another memorable post, Chris. There is no one like you.
Your comments are always memorable.