Delegation Resource Manual: Month by Month Implementation Guide
Page 26
YMCA PA Youth & Government Program
Rosa Parks (b.191³-)
Two excerpts are provided below. One introduces students to Rosa as she reflects on her
life during a current interview and the other blends literature with civics as students study a
poem about Rosa Parks by acclaimed poet Rita Dove.
Interview with Rosa Parks (February 1997) An excerpt follows below.
Have you ever faced something that you thought you couldn’t stand up to?
“I can’t think of anything. Usually, if I have to face something, I do so no matter what the
consequences might be. I never had any desire to give up. I did not feel that giving up would be a
way to become a free person. That’s the way I still feel. By standing up to something we still don’t
always affect change right away. Even when we are brave and have courage, change still doesn’t
come about for a long time.”
Rosa by Rita Dove
How she sat there,
the time right inside a place
so wrong it was ready.
The trim name with
its dream of a bench
to rest on. Her sensible coat.
Doing nothing was the doing:
the clean flame of her gaze
carved by a camera flash.
How she stood up
when they bent down to retrieve
her purse. That courtesy.
Dove, Rita, On The Bus With Rosa Parks W.W. Norton and Company, 1999.
