Two women who have become the faces of two great movements: Rosa Parks and Alicia Garza. One made history by refusing to give up her seat in the name of equal rights and another is making history by leading a historical movement upholding the value of Black lives.
In 1913 Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. Growing up she was an activist for the Civil Rights Movement, her most notable contribution being the day she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. There has been speculation about Parks’ motivation that day. Some have said that she refused to stand simply because she was tired. This was not the case.
“People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true,” Parks revealed. “I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”
This act of courage is what led Parks to become the leader of an entire movement, and is what keeps her legacy alive today. She has passed her torch to Alicia Garza, activist and one of the faces of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Alicia Garza was born in January 1981 in Los Angeles, California. After getting her bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of California, Garza would go on to hold several social-justice positions. In 2013, she became co-founded the Black Lives Matter movement. In response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, Garza took to Facebook, writing, “I continue to be surprised at how little Black lives matter…” thus a movement was born. She has received numerous awards and recognition for her contributions, and has even authored a book called “The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart.”
