Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rosa Parks in the 1960's (with Martin Luther King in the background). Also, in her mugshot after her infamous arrest on the bus.

In her later years. I believe she died in 2005.


I am watching the movie "The Rosa Parks Story" on TV today, with Angela Bassett as Parks. I recommend it; it would be educative for people who are not familiar with her story. I think too many people forget (or don't really even believe) how things really were then. I decided to do at least some small thing to think of and honor Dr. King today. Granted, this isn't much, but my heart is there.



I watched the Obama Inauguration concert yesterday, and admit to feeling a long-forgotten hope for the future of race relations that I used to feel when I listened to Dr. King speak. I also listened to King's entire "I Have A Dream" speech from 1963, and was instantly brought back to that time, when I was 15 years old and very affected by the civil rights movement. I was especially touched to see Pete Seeger (who must be 90 or so) there, leading the other performers and thousands in the audience in singing "This Land Is Your Land;" that brought back so many memories of that time and that song as my introduction to folk music, which I love to this day. Ideas about fairness and right and wrong were implanted in my mind and in my heart, through both the movement and the music; I could not have foreseen how they would influence me for the rest of my life, but they certainly have, and I believe for the better (although not always easier).