Oops! We had to remove the hero profile you’re looking for because it appears in our book Heroic Leadership: An Influence Taxonomy of 100 Exceptional Individuals, published by Routledge in 2013.
Our contract at Routledge required us to remove many of our profiles on our blog. But we do have other hero profiles and information about heroes on the menu bar located on the right side of this page. Check it out!
In the mean time, please accept our apologies.
— Scott Allison and George Goethals
Park was very determined in her efforts… It’s simple acts that really touch people’s hearts and makes them personal heroes.
It seems so simple when some people do it. You just refuse to stand up. That’s all. You refuse to stand up. You refuse to sit down. You refuse to be quiet. You refuse to be invisible. It seems so simple, but it can be the hardest thing in the world. Yet all it takes is that one magical person to perform that simple act and the floodgates open, the changes come, the world is renewed and Humanity is redeemed.
It’s sickening and shameful that these racist, demeaning practices were commonplace, especially in the United States. It boggles the mind that so many people were– and are– so eager to reject and betray the core principles that our country was founded upon. But this teaches us that the American Revolution didn’t stop with the end of the war. America is up against the inertia of ten thousand years of ignorance and animal instinct. Yet here we are, living in an age where the degradations visited upon Rosa Parks are unthinkable. Because of people like her we know that the world can change and the future is not hopeless.
We’re not done yet, though. To summon that better future, every one of us must live up to the standards of Rosa Parks.
I remember at a young age learning about Rosa Parks in elementary school, and being inspired by her. Her one act of civil disobedience probably seemed insignificant to her in the moment, but it wound up exponentially altering how we perceive racial inequality today. Aside from that, I believe that this one heroic act really captures what her character must have been like. Rosa Parks is a leader. She was candid in her views, and spoke her mind when the silence needed to be broken. It is indeed a tough act to follow.