A woman’s place

  Over the past few months, the funerals of two remarkable women have taken place.  These were so remarkable that both were attended by four United States Presidents and thousands of mourners.  Both women were inextricably bound up in the same cause and played major roles in shaping the course of American and world history.
  The first funeral was that of Rosa Parks, a seamstress from Montgomery, Alabama, who, on 1st December 1955, was told to move out of a bus seat reserved for white people when a white man boarded the bus after her.  She refused and was arrested. This gave rise to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted for just over a year as the American Civil Rights movement campaigned for the desegregation of not only the buses but also all public places.
  After a year of boycott and protest, the first desegregated bus service in Montgomery began on 20th December 1956, by order of the US Supreme Court. The civil rights movement had begun to gather momentum.
  The second funeral was that of Coretta Scott King who, as a child, had overcome the segregation school system to win a scholarship to the Boston Conservatory to study singing.  There, she met and married Martin Luther King who was to become a prominent Baptist minister and Civil Rights leader. Speaking of his wife - who was a prominent civil rights activist in her own right - the Rev King acknowledged that, 'on many points she educated me'.
  Coretta Scott King was to go on to endure being bombed out of her house with her young family and seeing her husband assassinated in 1968.  Throughout this and beyond, her commitment never waivered to what she believed was right under God.
  Here were two women who helped to change the face of America and, in so doing, also changed the attitudes of the world - although there is still much to be done.
We might be forgiven for asking 'where are their 21st century equivalents, standing up for what is right?' Yet these people are all around us!
  As we celebrate Mothering Sunday this month - now separated from its original church-centred origins - we give thanks to God for the influence that all women have on the face of the world.
  Few will be recognised by statesmen and Presidents, but the personal impact that grandmothers, mothers, aunts and sisters have on their families and on the world is incalculable.  Through their care and love of families and friends, our worlds are changed and enhanced.
  We need to thank God for all those significant women in our lives - past and present - as much as we recognise the contribution of the Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott Kings of this world.

by Graham Clarke.