At least Tuesday night, she was. Cherry’s third grade class performed first person narratives based the lives of historical figures. She portrayed Rosa Parks. Dressed in her denim blazer and black skirt, her hair pulled back in a low bun, she sat in a chair and talked about the beginning of the civil rights movement. Born a world away in the foothills of the Himalayas, Cherry’s life couldn’t be more removed from Montgomery, Alabama in the 1950’s. But for one night only, she explained what it meant for Rosa Parks not to give up her seat on the bus. Her performance proved that we’re more alike than we are different. Here is the monologue she researched and wrote all by herself.
Hi, I’m Rosa Parks, I was born February 4, 1913. I lived in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. When I was two years old, my parents divorced. In 1932 I got married to a man named, Raymond Parks. I am famous because I started the civil rights movement. When I refused to give up my seat on the bus, a man named James F. Blake called the police to come and arrest me. I received many awards because of my actions. Because of me a bus boycott started. I didn’t recognize the bus driver, James F. Blake, the same person who left me in the rain. People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically or more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I wasn’t old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was 42. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in. Later in life, I wrote an autobiography. Sadly, I died on October 24, 2005 in Detroit, Michigan, United States, at the age of 92.
I admire Rosa Parks for staying seated on the bus.
CRISPLY SPOKEN 