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- [as Parker] "I DO NOT PRETEND
"TO UNDERSTAND THE MORAL UNIVERSE.
"THE ARC IS A LONG ONE.
"MY EYE REACHES BUT LITTLE WAYS.
"I CANNOT CALCULATE THE CURVE AND COMPLETE THE FIGURE
"BY THE EXPERIENCE OF SIGHT.
"I CAN DIVINE IT BY CONSCIENCE.
"AND FROM WHAT I SEE,
I AM SURE IT BENDS TOWARDS JUSTICE."
narrator: WHEN ABOLITIONIST THEODORE PARKER
WROTE THESE WORDS IN 1853,
HE DID SO WITH A VISION FOR THE NATION
THAT FEW THEN HELD.
ONE CENTURY LATER,
THE BROWN DECISION SEEMED TO VINDICATE HIS DREAM.
IT MARKED THE BEGINNING OF THE END
FOR DE JURE SEGREGATION,
SEGREGATION BY LAW.
BUT THE PRACTICE OF SEGREGATION,
DE FACTO SEGREGATION,
CONTINUED.
AND CHALLENGING THIS SOUTHERN DOGMA
COULD BE LETHAL.
IN 1955, A 14-YEAR-OLD CHICAGO BOY NAMED EMMETT TILL
TRAVELED TO VISIT RELATIVES IN MONEY, MISSISSIPPI.
A MONTH LATER, HIS BODY RETURNED HOME IN A PINE BOX.
FOR THE HIGH CRIME OF WHISTLING AT A WHITE WOMAN,
EMMETT TILL HAD BEEN BEATEN AND SHOT,
AND HIS BODY DUMPED IN THE TALLAHATCHIE RIVER.
THE LEGAL SYSTEM HAD BEEN TOO SLOW,
THE ARC TOO LONG,
TO SAVE EMMETT TILL
AND COUNTLESS OTHER VICTIMS OF RACIAL VIOLENCE.
BUT IN THE MID-1950s,
A NEW GENERATION OF ACTIVISTS MOUNTED A CAMPAIGN
OF DIRECT POLITICAL ACTION AND NONVIOLENT PROTEST
TO EXORCISE JIM CROW AND ITS VIOLENT LEGACY
ONCE AND FOR ALL.
THEIR FIGHT FOR FREEDOM AND EQUALITY BECAME KNOWN AS
THE MODERN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT.
ON DECEMBER 1, 1955,
A DEPARTMENT STORE SEAMSTRESS
BOARDED A CITY BUS IN MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA.
HER NAME WAS ROSA PARKS.
SHE WAS A ***.
WHEN THE BUS DRIVER ORDERED MS. PARKS
TO SURRENDER HER SEAT TO A WHITE MAN,
SHE REFUSED AND WAS ARRESTED.
THE POPULAR LEGEND OF THE TIRED SEAMSTRESS
REVEALS ONLY PART OF THE STORY.
ROSA PARKS WAS A SEAMSTRESS.
AND SHE WAS TIRED,
"JUST TIRED OF GIVING IN," SHE WOULD WRITE, YEARS LATER.
SHE WAS ALSO AN ACTIVE MEMBER OF THE NAACP.
BY THE TIME ROSA PARKS WAS ARRESTED,
COMMUNITY LEADERS HAD A PLAN IN PLACE
TO BOYCOTT MONTGOMERY'S SEGREGATED BUS SYSTEM.
THEY WERE JUST WAITING
FOR THE RIGHT PERSON TO BE ARRESTED,
SOMEONE WHO WOULD ANGER THE *** COMMUNITY INTO ACTION,
SOMEONE OF UNIMPEACHABLE CHARACTER,
SOMEONE LIKE ROSA PARKS.