Today is December 1st, the 70th anniversary of Rosa Parks refusing to give up her bus seat to a White bus rider in Montgomery, Alabama and the beginning of the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. Today is also the public launch of the Mukuyu Collective’s Uprooting Qahr project. A project who’s roots include those of the Deep South and their legacy of dispossession, displacement, and discrimination. A project that honors the legacy of resistance and resilience as well.
Taishya Adams with Rosa Parks Statue in Montgomery, AlabamaRosa Park’s act of resistance in 1955 sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, 381 day protest against racial segregation on public buses. Protests done by both African American, Jewish, and Anglo-Saxon people. This protest also models the interracial, intergenerational solidarity necessary to dismantle racialized systems of oppression.
LAUNCHING UPROOTING QAHR
We purposefully chose this day to launch Uprooting Qahr because today stands are a reminder to resist systems of oppression strategically and in community. Uprooting Qahr calls in the heart and the head reconnecting the ties that bind our human experiences – past, present, and future. From the Colorado Rockies to West Bank and the Deep South, we navigate the promise of democracy, the spread of colonialism, and the pathways to liberty and justice for all.
Though music, film, and monologues, Uprooting Qahr unpacks the sadness, frustration, anger caused by displacement, dispossession and discrimination while also shining a light of hope towards collective liberation. To learn more, sign up for our listserv or join our FREE patreon to get behind the scenes images, stories from the journey, and reflections on the work ahead.
On this day, Rosa Parks modeled the courage necessary to not only refuse but to do so strategically. This brave act followed a two week training on nonviolence resistance. As a member of the local NAACP chapter, this was not an isolated act rather a coordinated effort that was practiced in community. A community that gave her the strength to stand up for her dignity as a African American, tax paying resident.
As Rosa Parks was taken to court, Jo Ann Gibson, her friend and a member of the Women’s Political Council mobilized people in the community who had been advocating for integrated bus systems to show up for Rosa Parks at the courthouse.
Jo Ann Gibson helped spark the 1965 Civil Rights MovementRosa Parks actions are often positioned as an individualist act and isolated moment in time; however, this was NOT the first time African American’s stood up for their rights. Rosa Parks actions are a continuum that built on Pauli Murray’s 1944 sit ins and even those of a pregnant teen named Claudine Colvin, who also refused to stand up for a White patron on the bus in March 2, 1955.
REGISTER TODAY – FREE UPROOTING QAHR PUBLIC PREVIEW 12/20!
We created Uprooting Qahr to help us recognize patterns of oppression; reclaim connection and relationships; and learn strategies to accelerate collective liberation. Join us for the FREE Public Preview of Uprooting Qahr on Saturday, December 20th at 1:30 pm. To learn more and register, click here.
May this be a reminder that we are collectively creating our human story and that we all have a piece in the puzzle. We certainly don’t have to do “everything”, we are each here to do our small but significant part.
