15) #BlackHistoryMonth Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks is the "mother of the civil rights movement." She is  credited with turning the course of American history by refusing in 1955 to give up her seat on a bus for a white man. In an act of civil disobedience, she violated Alabama Code ch. 1 § 8, which prohibited all "colored" people from sitting in the front of the bus. That act served as the catalyst for the year long Montgomery bus boycott, for the movement itself, and for the subsequent rise of  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

One of the highlights of clerking for the late Damon J Keith in the 80’s was having the opportunity to meet Mrs. Parks. She worked in the federal courthouse in the office of the late Congressman John Conyers. I along with my fellow clerks would not miss an opportunity to visit Rep. Conyers office solely for the purpose of saying hi to the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement who was also a dear friend of Judge Keith. The Judge was instrumental in securing Mrs Parks housing in later years. Rosa Parks died in 2005 from progressive dementia.