Covenant News

Parks: Ordinary Person, Extraordinary Influence

CHICAGO, IL (October 25, 2005) - Civil rights leader Rosa Parks was "an example of how God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things," says Darrell Griffin, pastor of Oakdale Covenant Church in Chicago.

Parks, 92, died Monday night. She gained national attention after she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, in December 1955. Her subsequent arrest led to a 381-day boycott of the bus system by African Americans, which was organized by a then relatively unknown Baptist minister, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"When Rosa Parks sat down, she gave courage to the African American community to continue to stand up," says Griffin. "She became a symbol of our struggle. When I look at her life personally, it helps me to realize we stand on the shoulders of giants." Parks' courage had an impact far beyond the African Community, however. "Her life was not only important for African Americans, but also for the world," notes Griffin. "Our civil rights movement has been mirrored all around the world."

Her action was as simple as sitting on a seat and "and yet so much more," says Harold Spooner Jr., executive vice president of Outreach Ministries for Ministries of Benevolence of the Evangelical Covenant Church. "There's something about the simplicity of what she did – that is what makes it so profound.

"For those of us working in the area of racial righteousness, you have to look back at her courage and her willingness to step out front and do what was right," Spooner continues. "She was a deeply spiritual woman. Her fight for justice was rooted in her faith, in her being a Christian, in her understanding of being God's child."

Spooner laments, "We are losing another slice of history. What you hope doesn't happen is that we lose our legacy," he adds, saying it is important for people to continue to fight and sacrifice as she did for civil rights for everyone.

"The debt all Americans – not just African Americans – owe is huge," Spooner says.

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