Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks died this morning at the age of 92.
She was already 42 when she acted in the way that made her immortal and helped a little bit to change the world.
I don't go for the theory of "one person can change the world". Rosa Parks herself said the only reason her action got noticed is because the masses got behind her. Masses mobilised by Martin Luther King, her church, the NAACP and many others.
She was never alone or isolated; she'd been an NAACP member for more than a decade; and it wasn't as if the Civil Rights movement got born in that instant. Take the Washington march of '47 for instance, the Detroit uprising of 43, and many other forgotten moments of the movement.
And that myth of one person changing the world is a dangerous and foolish piece of propaganda. My clearest image is of the guy who stood before the column of tanks heading out of Tiananmen Square, the morning after the massacre. Everybody knows the shot and the footage. I don't know what happened to the guy - some say he was never caught, some say he was imprisoned or executed, some that a patsy paid for his actions. I do know what happened to the tank commander though. He was executed about 3 months later. For not following orders. For not riding the guy down. For embarassing the state and for unwittingly providing a lasting image of resistance.
I think the concept of idolising one individual is both a result and a function of our culture.
In fact, there had been two women earlier in 1955 in Montgomery who had refused to give up their seats. I don't know their names, and probably you don't either. They had been fined, and not imprisoned; but I believe they also weren't members of the same church as Rosa Parks. But they were heroes just as much as she was.
Still, when Rosa Parks was on that busy bus, and told the driver that she would not give up her seat for a white man, and then that, yes, he could go ahead and call the police to arrest her, that was an act of incredible bravery. Remember - this was a time of casual lynching. Emmett Till had been murdered just over a month earlier and the photos of his disfigured corpse were still being distributed by the NAACP. Still, Rosa Parks sat, and politely explained that the colour of your skin is irrelevant.
She was an amazing woman and the world owes her an enormous debt. Not because she showed that one person can change the world, but because she showed that one person can inspire the world, can move us all to action.
She was a queen. Our own shining, Black Queen.