Words by Tracy E. Antoine
Editing by Dennis Byron
On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Rosa Parks boarded a bus on her way home after work. A few stops later some white passengers boarded. The seats in the white section were full, so the bus driver moved toward the rear to shift the “colored section” back, in order for the one white man standing, to have a seat. He then instructed four people of color to get out of their seats and stand. Three of the four “colored” passengers complied. The fourth, Mrs. Rosa Parks never moved. She and the driver exchanged words and after realizing that Mrs. Parks wasn’t going to get up, the bus driver called the police and she Ms. Rosa Parks was arrested.
We have all heard this story of Rosa Parks. in history classes all over the country. We have been taught that she was an older woman, who refused to give up her seat because she was tired, after a long day at work. This account, however, is an unreliable, narration. Mrs. Parks, wasn’t old and her refusal was from the exhaustion, not from her day at work, but from the injustice, she and other people of color endured daily.
Claudette Colvin, Irene Morgan, Aurelia Browder, and Mary Louise Smith, just to name a few, were women of color who had also refused to give up their seats and were arrested. Mrs. Parks’ refusal emerged from the undignified treatment of people of color. Her refusal came from the profuse disappointment, hurt, and frustration due to the acquittal of the men responsible for the brutal murder of fourteen-year-old, Emmett Till.
This film, BEHIND THE MOVEMENT, shows us a more realistic view of what led to Mrs. Parks’ decision and ultimately the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, that was organized in 3 vigorous days and lasted 381 days. The film shows us the authenticity of how the boycott started and the people who organized and stood behind this movement, many people whose names may have only been mentioned vaguely or not at all.
BEHIND THE MOVEMENT, written by Katrina O’Gilvie and directed by Aric Avelino, stars Meta Golding, who plays Rosa Parks, Isaiah Washington, as Edgar “E.D Nixon,” Loretta Devine, as Jo Ann Robinson, and Roger Guenveur Smith, as Raymond Parks, and Shaun Clay as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
This is a film that illustrates on not only the injustices of the 1950’s and 1960’s but also what we are faced with now, 68 years later.
BEHIND THE MOVEMENT is impassioned, to say the least. It uncovers what can happen when we as a people come together. When we organize to, peacefully but diligently, protest the inequalities of this nation. I urge everyone to tune in to see this more historically accurate account of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which ultimately gave life to The Civil Rights movement.
BEHIND THE MOVEMENT, premieres on TV One, Sunday, February 11, 2018, at 7/8 CT.
