people of the world, and particularly non-white immigrants from around the
world salute you to express our deeply felt gratitude for your courage in becoming a
catalyst in removal of the evil Apartheid practice from the United States. Dear Rosa, we thank you from the depth of our
hearts.
leaving a rich legacy of service to humanity. Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an
African-American civil rights activist, whom the United States Congress called
“the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom
movement”.
Had it not been for her defiant civil disobedience by courageously sitting in
the bus despite the orders to get up from the seat where only white people can
sit, and had it not been for the follow up by MLK, the Civil rights act would
not have been a reality, and perhaps none of the non-white immigrants would have
made it to the United States. You are one of the reasons I am here today in
these United States.
In Dallas, there were no more than 5 Pakistani and 10 Indian families prior to
the passage of Civil rights act in 1964, then a wave of immigrants came,
knowing that they don’t have to drink the water from a different fountain;
don’t have to sit in the back of the bus, or cannot eat in a restaurant and
forget all other privileges we enjoy today because of her bold step.
I just Googled “Rosa Parks Mike Ghouse” and to my delight, I found 4,710
entries, and felt good that I have expressed my gratitude adequately. Thank you Rosa, I would not have come to the
United States without the Civil rights act and I will do my share of work in
making America a great nation on the earth.
On May 1, 2010, I paid my tribute to Rosa Parks to a group of 8000 people at
the Immigration Rally in Down Town Dallas – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrjU0KULv-Y
We, at the
Foundation for Pluralism paid our tribute to Rosa Parks at the 9th
Annual Thanksgiving Celebrations at Embassy Suites Hotel in Frisco in November 2005;
she had passed away on October 24 the same year. Narration of Thanksgiving was given by Mary
Ann Thompson-Frenk, and Tribute to Rosa Parks was read by Cheryl Smith and the
tribute to MLK was offered by Anne Marie Weiss and the plaque was presented to
Rev. Perry Crenshaw by TV Host Ester Davis. Julie Ann Turner and Najma Ghouse
were the other MC’s of the program and I delivered the Key note address “the Community
is a bus.” http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/TG2005_REPORT.asp
Nelson Mandela” – http://therecoveringpolitician.com/rp-nation/mike-ghouse-a-muslims-prayer-for-nelson-mandela
If you are in Dallas, we are holding the 16th
Annual Thanksgiving event on Saturday, November 22, and I am pleased to invite
you to join us – details at: www.ThanksgivingCelebrations.org
The following information is from Wikipedia.
Louise McCauley Parks
(February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an African-American
civil
rights activist,
whom the United States Congress called “the
first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom
movement”.[1] Her
birthday, February 4, and the day she was arrested, December 1, have both
become Rosa Parks Day, commemorated in both California and
Ohio.
On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to obey bus
driver James F. Blake‘s order that she give up her seat in
the colored section to a white passenger, after the white section was filled.
Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation. Others had taken
similar steps, including Irene Morgan in 1946, Sarah Louise Keys in 1955, and
the members of the Browder v. Gayle lawsuit (Claudette
Colvin, Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, and Mary Louise Smith) who
were arrested in Montgomery months before Parks. NAACP
organizers believed that Parks was the best candidate for seeing through a
court challenge after her arrest for civil disobedience in violating Alabama
segregation laws, although eventually her case became bogged down in the state
courts while the Browder v. Gayle case succeeded.
Parks’ act of defiance and the Montgomery Bus Boycott became important
symbols of the modern Civil Rights Movement. She became an
international icon of resistance to racial segregation. She organized and
collaborated with civil rights leaders, including Edgar Nixon,
president of the local chapter of the NAACP; and Martin Luther King, Jr., a new minister in
town who gained national prominence in the civil rights movement.
At the time, Parks was secretary
of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. She had recently attended the Highlander Folk School, a Tennessee
center for training activists for workers’ rights and racial equality. She
acted as a private citizen “tired of giving in”. Although widely
honored in later years, she also suffered for her act; she was fired from her
job as a seamstress in a local department store.
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Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on
Pluralism at work place, politics, religion, society, gender, race, culture,
ethnicity, food and foreign policy. He is commentator on Fox News and syndicated
Talk Radio shows and a writer at major news papers including Dallas Morning News
and Huffington Post. All about him is listed in several links at www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at
www.TheGhousediary.com and 10 other
blogs. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic
solutions on issues of the day.