[Professor]

NAACP REMEMBERS ROSA PARKS:
FLAGS AT HALF-MAST IN HER HONOR

The North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP mourns the loss, but rejoices in the noble legacy of Rosa Lee Parks. In the real sense she was not only the Mother of the modern Civil Rights movement, but the Mother of a nation which needed the fresh birth of freedom. Like Shiprah and Puah of the Bible she stood up to the Pharoahic system of segregation and helped to socially conceive the modern day Moses of our day, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

When she sat down with silent dignity her actions sounded the call for millions whose hopes had often been deferred to stand up. Like Esther with beauty, dignity, and bravery she acted against injustice and understood the time for which she was born. Like Mary her act of courage produced a kind of Immaculate Conception of courage into the wombs of a people whose dignities often were aborted by the evils of racism.

Rosa Parks did not go along to get along. Instead like a true Mother, she stopped going along, scarified, and recognized there was a moral law higher than man’s unjust laws. She did this so that we as a nation could change and grow into our rightful place. Rosa Parks like a good Mother corrected us and challenged us so that we as a nation might form a more perfect union. “If ever there was a time that the flags of our State and Nation should fly at half-mast, this is such a time.” remarked Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, newly elected president of the NC NAACP State Conference. “Rosa Lee Parks taught us to do more than just wave the flag. She taught us to live out its true symbolic meaning---one Nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all. Rosa Parks continued to push us to fight against the continuing realities of racism and social/economic injustice, and was an active member of the NAACP.” Rev. Barber continued, “Let us mourn our loss, rejoice her legacy, and continue in her spirit. Thank you Mother Parks. Sleep now in the bosom of God and take your rest.”

North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, the third largest state conference in the nation is comprised of 109 adult branches, 50 youth councils and 20 college chapters. For more information, call the State Office at 336/275-0851.