President Obama visited the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan yesterday, and took a moment to sit in the bus in which the late Rosa Parks made history:
“I actually had the chance to sit in Rosa Parks’ bus,” Obama said. “I just sat there for a moment and pondered the courage and tenacity that is part of our very recent history, but is also a part of that long line of folks — sometimes nameless, oftentimes didn’t make the history books — but who constantly insisted on their dignity, their stake in the American Dream.”
I know we’re distracted by political concerns real and imagined, but I’d like to think we can forget, for a moment, what side of whatever aisle on which we sit to appreciate the historical nature of that image, and its similarity to perhaps one of the most iconic images of Parks (see below the jump). Frankly, it leaves me speechless.
Jamil Smith Recommended
