Poems, songs for Rosa Parks
Andrew
Riggs / The Collegian
Women’s Resource
Center Coordinator Francine Oputa recites Maya Angelou’s poem
“Still I Rise” Thursday in the USU Pavillion.
|
By Laban Pelz
The Collegian
Fresno State students and staff
paid tribute to Rosa Parks Thursday with music, poetry and dialogue to
better understand who she was.
Credited by many with sparking the civil rights movement of the 1960s
when she was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white
passenger, Mrs. Parks died Monday in Detroit.
Before reciting Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise,”
Women’s Resource Center coordinator Francine Oputa recalled the
time she met Mrs. Parks, and said people have a misperception of the woman.
“She was petite, quiet, humble and gentle,” Oputa said. Some
people, she said, have the notion Mrs.
Parks was “all sassy,
and that wasn’t Mrs. Parks.”
The tribute, put on by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., then turned to
songs by some of its members.
Ocie Parks sang “Eyes on the Sparrow” and Andrea Lee sang
a verse of “Amazing Grace,” which many in the audience joined
in.
After the songs students came up to the microphone and shared their thoughts
on Mrs. Parks and her life.
Jennifer Tyler said she rode the bus to school when she was younger and
hated it when she had to stand.
“I don’t know about you all, but I’m thankful I have
that right,” she said of being able to sit when and where she wants.
Henrique Tarpeh found significance in that Mrs. Parks was the last person
alive who had such an impact on civil rights.
“She made it possible for all of us, black and white, to be together,”
he said.
After the tribute, Oputa said the day in 1955 when Mrs. Parks broke a
Montgomery, Ala., city ordinance was not planned, nor was it completely
a surprise.
“It was preparation meeting opportunity,” she said. “She
was trained in civil disobedience.”
Oputa said it wasn’t Mrs. Parks’ first act of disobedience
and also said Mrs. Parks didn’t spark the civil rights movement,
but gave it momentum. She said the movement was something inevitable.
“If not her, it would have been someone else,” Oputa said.
“Certain things are bound to happen.”
Comment
on this story in the News forum >>
|
