he is invited everywhere to speak, gets an honorarium, makes money, survives. he s a hero. -the civil rights groups would have her go out and speak at events and raise money, but it never occurred to anybody that they ought to find some way for them to be supported. i think that part of the way she was treated was because she was a woman, therefore taken advantage. -montgomery s a smaller town. people had to know that she was no longer working. king, none of them offered her a job. rosa parks was also a prideful woman and would not dare ask. and i don t think she was the kind of woman that would think she was owed. -auntie rosa never discussed any hardship. you would not know she was hungry, for instance.
there was a blackout on news about the incident. it s obvious nothing was happening, no justice. -so young militants decide to organize a people s tribunal to bring the facts of the case to the community, and they ask rosa parks to serve on the jury. -i was one of the young radicals. i said, she s not going to go for this. i asked her. she says, certainly. i m glad you asked. we had the tribunal here at the church of the black madonna. -jesus was concerned about freedom, about people coming together, about the unity of a black people fighting against the oppression of a white gentile nation, rome. -the shrine of the black madonna was part of the whole black power, black liberation movement of that period. first time i met rosa parks was in 1967
at the people s trial that was taking place. -this entire church was packed. all of us were there to see and witness her display of what we call the imminence of justice. -well, the conclusion was that they were guilty. they was guilty of murder in the first degree. -i don t think people understand how well-trained mrs. parks was. i don t think they understand what a good organizer she was. i don t think they understand how long she had been in the struggle, and i don t think they understood how radical her understanding of what the kind of change we need is. and it s a part of her magic, really, that on the one hand, she can cultivate this notion of innocence, if you will,