Rosa Parks Dead at 92
Rosa Parks has passed away. If you do not understand the political connection to her actions, read this forum post.
In addition to what is mentioned in the post, there is also the story of how the civil rights movement flipped the black vote in America. During the 1960 presidential elections (Nixon vs. JFK), Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested during a civil rights demonstration. He was sent to a jail, where he awaited his release. Authorities took him from the jail during the middle of the night, and he was taken to an undisclosed location. Nobody knew where he was, and many feared that he had been murdered. During the civil rights movement it was not unusual for civil rights supporters to be murdered by anti-civil rights police officers. MLK's wife, Coretta Scott King, pleaded with Jackie Robinson (the baseball player) to help get her husband released from jail before a lynch mob could get to him. Jackie Robinson was retired from baseball at this time, and he was very involved in politics. He was a strong Republican supporter. Robinson contacted Nixon, hoping he would publicize the MLK story and hopefully get him released from jail. John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby had already called the judge and pleaded for the release of MLK. Nixon, fearing he would lose a core base of his voters who were anti-civil rights, chose not say anything about MLK. He would later blame his secretary for not releasing a statement he claims he made, and even later on blamed Eisenhower administration, saying he had asked them to intervene and get MLK released. That was typical Nixon, shifting his position whenever the wind changed direction, always doing what he thought was best for himself.
In what was one of the fastest flips in US political history, black voters boycotted the Republican party and have voted Democrat (by rather wide margins) in almost every national election since then. Nixon lost the 1960 election by a slim margin. People forget that before 1960, blacks usually opposed the party that had oppressed them since the Civil War (remember, Lincoln was a Republican, and the confederacy was led by "Southern Democrats").
RIP Rosa Parks
In addition to what is mentioned in the post, there is also the story of how the civil rights movement flipped the black vote in America. During the 1960 presidential elections (Nixon vs. JFK), Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested during a civil rights demonstration. He was sent to a jail, where he awaited his release. Authorities took him from the jail during the middle of the night, and he was taken to an undisclosed location. Nobody knew where he was, and many feared that he had been murdered. During the civil rights movement it was not unusual for civil rights supporters to be murdered by anti-civil rights police officers. MLK's wife, Coretta Scott King, pleaded with Jackie Robinson (the baseball player) to help get her husband released from jail before a lynch mob could get to him. Jackie Robinson was retired from baseball at this time, and he was very involved in politics. He was a strong Republican supporter. Robinson contacted Nixon, hoping he would publicize the MLK story and hopefully get him released from jail. John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby had already called the judge and pleaded for the release of MLK. Nixon, fearing he would lose a core base of his voters who were anti-civil rights, chose not say anything about MLK. He would later blame his secretary for not releasing a statement he claims he made, and even later on blamed Eisenhower administration, saying he had asked them to intervene and get MLK released. That was typical Nixon, shifting his position whenever the wind changed direction, always doing what he thought was best for himself.
In what was one of the fastest flips in US political history, black voters boycotted the Republican party and have voted Democrat (by rather wide margins) in almost every national election since then. Nixon lost the 1960 election by a slim margin. People forget that before 1960, blacks usually opposed the party that had oppressed them since the Civil War (remember, Lincoln was a Republican, and the confederacy was led by "Southern Democrats").
RIP Rosa Parks