This podcast has been my favorite. The fact that there are so many things that are taught in school but the focus of their impact is what “really matter” without looking at their faults. In order to understand history and gain a clear perspective, we need to know the overall image meaning the positives and negatives and what falls in between or else we have a false understanding. Dr. Bezio started discussing the Civil Rights Movement with Rosa Parks taking a stand for the injustice, yet she was not the first individual to do that. I knew that this was not a spur of the moment decision, or the first time but I will say I myself did not know who had done it previously. I could not tell you it was Claudette Colvin, but the name did ring a bell for me. Then I had never thought of Rosa Parks being a better choice for the Moment to begin with. I had never viewed it as a strategy, I just viewed it as Rosa Parks was the one to take it on without thinking of her past or how she was light skinned and could be a better representative ans relate to the white individuals.
After hearing about the Movement, I had thought about the UR Black Student Coalition as how they had to strategize or where they started to (as in events) to gain momentum. In order for them to be so focused and ready to go, they had definitely planned for the many uncertainties of “what if” they could think of and see what approaches could be necessary. Also, after attending the teach ins, you could tell they saw the impact other schools had when this happened on their campus and are dedicated and passionate to see that change occur here.
I had the same previous knowledge of Rosa Parks and the Bus boycott that you did. I knew it was planned and that someone else did it first. I also knew she was “picked for the white people”.
You bring up a good point. It’s not enough for people to have the desire to start a movement and change some part of society. As we saw in Hayter’s article, a successful movement requires that so many people are coordinated properly, and that a slew of logistical problems are taken care of. The “behind the scenes” efforts are so often written out of history.
I totally agree with you that if we don’t see every side of history, and only focus on the majority perspective as we have in the past, then we can never fully understand what happened. Moments like Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat take on so much more meaning when we realize that it was not a singular event that sparked a movement, rather one more individual standing up for her rights in the same way as others had before her.