This was in 1956, where the South was segregated. Black people were supposed to give up their sits to white people if they were seated on the front section of the bus. This was a rule that everyone followed, men, women and children would give up their sit, however, that fateful afternoon of December 1st, Rosa Parks was so tired from a long day at work and did not feel like giving up her seat.

Perhaps Rosa Parks did not mean to get arrested and did not mean to start a movement. Today many of us fail to make a difference, because we are afraid of what might happen to us. We fail to speak out when everything is nuts, because we do not want to lose our standing in society. This was not the case of Rosa Parks. Her refusal to give up her seat gave way to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s rise to the national political scene. This marked the birth of the Civil Rights Movement.

Rosa Parks is truly a pioneer and an example to all of us. We live in a time where crony capitalism is running wild, where capitalism dictates the daily affairs of nations. We live in a time where money has more worth than a single life. Where instead of exporting democracy and prosperity, the United States exports weapons of mass destruction, death and tool kits for dictators all over the world.

There are movements around the world such as the Occupy Wall Street movement, that many people are afraid to join. Many people criticize it, but they forget the meaning of citizen participation. The journey truly starts with a single mile, or like another version of the quote states, “Even the longest journey must begin where you stand.” Real miracles and great deeds are put in motion by regular people like Rosa Parks that were too tired to comply, that were too tired to allow the oppressor to kick her when she was down.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of thirty-five. He was born Michael Luther King Jr. on January 15, 1929, but had his name changed to Martin. Dr. King fought passionately for the equal rights of American blacks and because of this, he became one of the world’s most honored men. He was a very talented and well-educated individual.

King Jr. attended public schools in Georgia, completing high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. Three years later, he studied at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of his senior class, which was mostly white. In 1951 he was awarded the B. D. and won a fellowship at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the highest degree in 1953 and received it in 1955.

In Boston, he met and later married Coretta Scott June 18, 1953, a woman with artistic talent and eventually started a family, which consists of two sons and two daughters. Dr. King was a pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. His grandfather and father were also pastors. This amazing man dedicated his time to fight for the rights of his own race. In addition, he became member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored people, a prominent organization of its kind in the nation.

Dr. Martin Luther King spread his profound and powerful words all over the world for peace and equality. Because of his influence a boycott took place, which was inspired by Rosa Parks because she refused to give up her seat on a public bus, which lasted about 382 days, moreover; on December 21, 1955 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled to allow the both the Negroes and whites to ride the bus as equals. During the boycott King was arrested, harassed, beaten and his home had been bombed, nonetheless, he did not fall and succeeded at becoming one of the most influential leaders of all time.

The speech “I Have a Dream“, inspired many and will always be remembered. Besides battling racism back in those days, his career as a preacher and a civil rights leader grew stronger. On the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1963, Martin organized a march on Washington D.C. that totaled 200,000 people demanding rights for minorities and announced his famous speech. The march influenced the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, and he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

MLK had written several books such as Stride toward Freedom, the book was based on the Montgomery bus boycott in 1958, Why We Can’t Wait, Where Do We Go from Here? Chaos or Communityin 1967. Because of his motivational words, his quotes are published all over the internet.

A few of Martin Luther King’s quotes:

A lie cannot live.

A man who will not die for something is not fit to live.

A riot is the language of the unheard.

Although he touched the lives of many, his words or actions could not save him from tragedy. On April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his hotel room Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray. He was there to support a strike by sanitation workers.

Luther’s accomplishments and iconic moments permanently marked our memories and will forever mark others. He will never be forgotten, he will remain a legend always. Black history is something to be proud of.

Video of the speech I Have a Dream

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After experiencing guys like Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, former Republican Party chairman Michael Steele, and Ward Connerly, who singlehandedly made getting into top public universities in California that much tougher for young blacks and Latinos with the passage of his Proposition 209, which killed affirmative action in the state and lowered black admissions in schools like UCLA to record lows, this former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and head of the National Restaurant Association didn’t phase me at all.

In fact, Cain and those other black conservatives I mentioned have continued a tradition, for lack of a better way to put it, that goes all the way back to Booker T. Washington 100 years ago. Washington’s Atlanta Compromise speech in 1915, in which he urged African Americans to “cast your buckets where you are” and, for all intents and purposes, accept the Jim Crow segregation and racism that was an essential part of the U.S. landscape was a landmark speech for a white, mainstream, and conservative America in which the notion of blacks being able to ride in the same trains, eat in the same restaurants, and go to the same schools as whites was unthinkable and abominable.

When I read Newsweek magazine’s cover story, “Citizen Cain”, in their October 17 issue, it merely reinforced my conviction of Cain continuing Washington’s legacy, as well as leading me to understand why Cain’s political and social views are the way they are.

For instance, in discussing Cain’s background, the article mentioned that he grew up in segregated Atlanta, the son of a chauffeur/barber/janitor who admirably worked extremely hard to provide for his family and eventually buy the family their own home, which was considered a monumental achievement for blacks in those days.

When it came to standing up for civil rights, however, that’s where I completely understood the roots of Cain’s convictions as according to the story, Cain said that him and his family “…saw (sit-ins and Freedom Rides) every day on TV and read about it in the paper, (but) Dad always said, ‘Stay out of trouble,’  and we did.”

In other words, aside from sneaking a drink in a white water fountain as a youngster, Cain, by not standing up for his civil rights, tacitly accepted being seen as an unequal human being among the whites in Atlanta and mainstream Georgia society in general – he sat down in the backs of buses and stayed away from lunch counters who had policies of not serving blacks without complaint, as well as go to predominantly black Morehouse College when, as salutatorian of his high school, he was rejected by Georgia Tech.

In my view, that was going along with the unfair status quo at a time when Rosa Parks was committing herself in the front of a Montgomery, AL bus, and Martin Luther King was committing himself in Birmingham and Selma. Not to mention those nine young people who committed themselves at Little Rock Central High School.

So I understand how and why Cain’s views developed the way it had, but as the self-proclaimed “CEO of Self”, Cain may have committed to making himself better, but where was his commitment to making his fellow blacks better off? 

I mean, here he was happily content to making his way though segregated society – or at least accepting it – while people like King were getting beaten, jailed, and killed so that every person of color, not just African Americans, could enjoy the same rights that whites enjoyed from birth.

After I read “Citizen Cain”, the prevailing thought in my mind was, “No wonder!”

No wonder that Cain feels that being poor and not having a job is the fault of the poor and unemployed themselves; I’m sure that his thinking goes along the line of, “My daddy made it through hard work, and so did I, so I really don’t see why you can’t either…and as for racism and you thinking that the white man’s the cause of all your problems, get over it.”  

That conviction is what has made Cain so popular with white conservatives and is a prevailing factor of him being a serious contender for the GOP nomination this summer. White conservatives can point to him (as well as Connerly and Thomas) and say, “See? I’m not a racist!”

What Cain, like so many other conservatives, ultimately refuses to understand is that you can’t tell people to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps if they don’t have boots at all; that it’s impossible to win a race if you have your legs tied together, or win a fight with one hand tied behind your back.

That’s the gist of the situation that the poor are in, and no 9-9-9 tax plan is going to solve that; how are people, black or otherwise, who are barely getting by on minimum wage, going to be able to give away 9% of their income without going under?

As former civil rights leader Joseph Lowery said in the Newsweek article, “He’s done nothing to further black people’s lives. All he’s doing is saying the racist stuff the mainstream GOP candidates can’t say and he’s having the time of his life doing it.”, meaning that like too many other conservatives, Cain doesn’t really care about poor people.

Or his fellow blacks in my opinion.

As for his chances of becoming our 45th president, I hope Cain gets the nomination, because Barack Obama will surely torch him in the general election and, with his impeccable campaigning skills, win by a landslide. But…

Realistically speaking, I don’t think that’s going to happen, because there won’t be nearly enough white conservatives who will be willing to vote for, and accept, a black man as their nominee for the White House.

Sure, there will be quite a few whites who will vote for Cain, as seen by the various straw polls, but there will be too many whites who just can’t see a black man as President, no matter how much he shares their views.

And these allegations of sexual harassment – shades of Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill in the 1990s – are not helping Cain’s prospects, either.

I’m certainly looking forward to seeing how things unfold. 

Rosa Parks’ from childhood was no stranger to racial discrimination and activism for racial equality. Rosa moved to Pine Level, Alabama to live with her grandparents, Rose and Sylvester Edwards on their farm after her parents separated.

Her grandparents were former slaves and strong supporters for racial equality. Rose’s grandfather at one time stood in front of their house with a shotgun while Ku Klux Klan paraded down the street.

In Pine level, Alabama there was bus transportation for white students to a new school building, while African-American students walked to the one-room schoolhouse, which often didn’t have desks and proper school supplies.

Rosa finished her education by attending segregated schools in Montgomery. In 1929, and in grade eleven, she left school to attend to her sick grandmother in Pine Level. She never returned, and ended up working in a shirt factory in Montgomery.

In 1932, Rosa married Raymond Parks who was a barber and an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She finished her high school degree with the help of her husband in 1933. She joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP in 1943 becoming a civil right activist, and served as secretary to the president, E.D. Nixon until 1957.

It was the law in Montgomery, Alabama that all public transportation be segregated and that bus drivers could act as police officers while in charge of any bus for the purposes of carrying this city law.

Bus drivers provided separate assigned seats to black and white passengers. A sign was put in the middle of the bus separating white passengers at the front of the bus from African-American passengers in the back. When an African-American passenger boarded the bus, they paid their fare at the front, then got off and re-boarded the bus at the back door. When the seats at the front filled up, and more whites got on, the bus driver would move the sign back and sometimes would ask the black passengers to give up their seats.

December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus for home after work at the Montgomery Fair department store. She took a seat in the “colored’ row. The city’s ordinance gave the drivers the authority to assign seats, but it didn’t give them the authority to demand black passengers to give up their seats to anyone regardless of color. Montgomery bus drivers however, required black passengers to give up their seats to white passengers when no other seats were available. If the black passenger protested, the bus driver would refuse service and call the police to have them removed.

As the bus Rosa was riding filled with white passengers more whites got on and stood in the aisle since the front seats were already full. The bus driver stopped the bus and moved the sign back one row and asked four black passengers to give up their seats. Three gave up their seats, but Rosa refused and remained seated. The driver asked her, “Why don’t you stand up?” to which she replied, “I don’t think I should have to stand up.” The driver then called the police and had her arrested. Later, she recalled that her refusal was because she was tired of giving in.

The police arrested Rosa at the scene and took her to police headquarters. She was released on bail, and on December 8, Rosa faced trial was found guilty and fined $14.

The evening Rosa Parks was arrested, E.D. Nixon, head of the local chapter of the NAACP, organized a boycott of Montgomery’s city buses. Ads were placed in local papers, handbills were distributed in black neighborhoods. In protest of Rosa Park’s arrest, the African-American community stayed off the buses Monday, December 5th. People either stayed home from work and school, or took a cab, some even walked to work. Organizers believed without African Americans riding the bus a longer boycott might be successful.

On Monday, December 5, 1955, a group of African-American community leaders gathered at Mt. Zion Church to discuss strategies. Their efforts birthed a new organization with strong leadership, called the “Montgomery Improvement Association” (MIA). They elected Montgomery newcomer Dr. Martin Luther King, the minister of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. The MIA saw Rosa Parks’ case as an excellent opportunity to create real change.

The boycott continued, some people carpooled, others cabbed it, and at least 40,000 African-Americans commuters walked, even as far as 20 miles to get to work.

Dozens of the Montgomery public buses sat for months, crippling the transit company’s finances, but the boycott faced strong opposition and even violence. Black churches were burned and both leaders homes were attacked. In efforts to end the boycott, the taxi system used by the African-American community had its insurance canceled, while other blacks were arrested for violating old law prohibiting boycotts.

In retaliation for justice the African-American community took legal action. A black legal team took the issue of segregation on public transit systems to federal court, believing that separate but equal policies had no place in public education.

In June 1956, the court declared Alabama’s racial segregation laws for public transit unconstitutional. November 13, 1956 the city appealed, but the Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s ruling. The transit company and downtown businesses suffered financial losses and with the loss of their legal system ruling against them, the city had to lift the law of segregation on public buses.

The African-American community combined with the legal action in their favor, held strong the boycott for 382 days, the largest and most successful movement against racial segregation in history.

Rosa Parks become a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement, but did lose her job at the department store. Her husband lost his after his boss forbade him to discuss his wife or their legal case. Unable to find work they left Montgomery and resettled in Detroit, Michigan with her mother.

She worked as a secretary and receptionists in the congressional office of John Conyer in Detroit. She also served on the board of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

In 1987,, she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, along with Elaine Eason Steele. “Pathways to Freedom” bus tours introduces young people to important civil rights and Underground Railroad sites throughout the country.

In 1992, she published Rosa Parks: My Story, an autobiography.

In 1995, Quiet Strength, was published, her memoir focuses on her faith and what role it played in her life.

Rosa Parks received the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP’s highest award. She was also gifted with the Martin Luther King Jr. Award.

September 9, 1996 President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given by the U.S. executive branch.

In 1997 she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award given by the U.S. legislative branch.

In 1999, Rosa Parks was named in Time magazine as one of 20 of the most influential people of the 20th century.

On October 24, 2005, at 92, Rosa Parks quietly died in her apartment from progressive dementia. Several memorial services were performed and among them she laid in state at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington D.C. It was noted an estimated 50,000 people paid their last respects. Rosa was interred at Detroit’s Woodlawn Cemetery in the chapel’s mausoleum. The chapel was renamed Rosa L. Parks Freedom Chapel shortly after her death.

Martin Luther King Jr. one of the people incharge of the montgomery bus boycott, was sitting at the kitchen table when the bus pulled up. He could not belive what he saw the bus was empty and everyone was walking to work and school. Some of the whites didnt like the idea of them being treated the same, and didn’t like the way they were trying to acomplish there goal. Some of the whites because of this were bombing houses and killing people. The churches of the blacks were also being bombed because tese were the places where they met and planned the bus boycott and to march to be fairly treated.

After they started the bus boycott Martin Luther King Jr. was getting threating phone calls and wondered if they should quit the boycott. He thought that there should be at least one thing that people arn’t segregated on so they Kept going. After the 13th month of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 381 days they won freedom. Now they didn’t have to give up there seats to whites that didn’t want to go to the back of the bus. After the blacks were able to sit where ever they wanted on the bus some of the whites were shotting blacks because they were sitting in a cirtin spot on the bus. Later the blacks were sit were ever they wanted with out being discriminated aganist they were able to vote and lots of other things. Now the blacks are able to all the things that whites are able to do.

Images of Hollywod Stars And Legendarymusicians generally come to mind when people think of wax museums, but Baltimore’s, Great Blacks in Wax Museum has taken a different approach. Founded in 1983 by Drs. Joanne and Elmer Martin, the gallery is the first of its kind dedicated to African American history. Such notables as Malcom X, Rosa Parks, General Colin Powell and explorer Matthew Henson are immortalized in the museum’s many exhibits.

     Starting out as a small storefront with only four figures, Great Blacks now houses more than 150 statues displayed in vivid historical recreations that span from precolonial times in Africa to modern-day drug-strewn alleyways. Last year the museum attracted more than 400,000 visitors, but patrons are often shocked by the graphic depictions of lynchings and slavery. Despite some mixed reactions to the exhibits, the couple intends to expand their current location to include a restaurant and theater. Holding true to their original vision, the Martins also plan to focus more on traditional African culture as well as develop a Blacks in Music section, which will include hip-hop artists.

A few women have changed the course of history, with simple acts of defiance, and one unsung heroine, before a television movie, about her life, was released in 2002,was a black woman of the same era as Martin Luther King, though never well known.  Knowledgeable historians today think this an oversight, their tracing the origins of US civil rights movements in the USA, to that fateful day, December 1st, 1955, when she set things in motion.

Having just finished her seamstress shift at work, Rosa Parks just wanted to get home, gratefully taking a seat on the bus, fare paid, but living in the age of segregation. Before long, a driver announcement stated that blacks must give up seats to whites, as the law demanded, but brave Rosa, defiant, refused to obey.

This happily married woman, steady job and strong sense of injustice, was dragged from her seat, thrown off the bus, then arrested, and fined, being in violation of city rules, but her moment of defiance sparked a movement, eventually causing segregation in America to be outlawed.  This brave lady became known as the Mother of Civil Rights, having sparked a wave of protest shaking the foundation of American society at that time.

An active member of the black community, friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, the treatment Parks had received needed to be answered to, and overnight, he and others print out 40,000 leaflets, all hand-delivered, calling a  meeting at the local Baptist church, where King told the huge crowd they must boycott the bus company.

From Dec. 5, buses were ignored by almost all blacks in the city boycotted the buses. Dr. King was named president of the newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association. Parks was fired, but the bus boycott continued, white communities fighting back with harassment on a massive scale.Blacks, waiting on street corners, for promised rides got arrested for ‘loitering’

January 30, 1956 saw the house of Dr. King being bombed, no one hurt, but King responded by saying that they needed to meet hate with love, not wanting to inflame tensions. Raymond D. York and Sonny Kyle Livingston, both white, were acquitted, despite confessing, but other whites spoke out, and violence eventually subsided. The boycott lasted over a year, only ended by a Supreme Court ruling.

That ruling, by the Supreme Court on November 13, 1956  declared Alabama laws requiring segregation on buses were illegal, federal injunctions being served served on the city and bus company officials on December 20th, forcing them to comply. 55 weeks after the protest kicked off the Supreme Court ruling, that blacks and whites paying the same fare had equal rights to seat,, meant that Mrs. Parks could pay her 10¢ and sit where she pleased.

December 21, 1956 saw Dr. King and Rev. Glen Smiley, a white minister, in the face of great hostility, sharing the front seat of a public bus, in a truly historic event that changed the social order forever. The pioneering protester Rosa Parks, over the intervening years, received countless honours and awards, not least the Medal of Freedom Award, presented by President Clinton in 1996 to this lifelong heroine.

She had inspired a generation to fight for civil rights, dying in 2005, at the age of 92, and nationally mourned. Her casket was displayed in the rotunda of the United States Capitol for two days, the  second African American, but only woman ever,, in US history to be laid in state there, a great honour more commonly reserved for US Presidents, though nobody in US history was more c deserving of it than she. A truly great lady.

One of the most significant American movements of the past century is the African-American civil rights movement. Originally a local movement, it grew to a national level due to a few important historical events and leaders. These events include the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the desegregation of Little Rock Central high school. The most significant leader of the African-American civil rights movement was Martin Luther King.

            The most significant impact that the Montgomery Bus Boycott would have towards making the civil rights movement national is that it attracted the public’s eye to Martin Luther King, and to the movement itself. On December 1, 1965, Rosa Parks, an African-American bus rider refused to give up her seat to a white man. Because of this defense of her human rights, the police arrested her. The pro-civil rights group known as the Montgomery Improvement Association organized a boycott of the public bus system in Montgomery, stating that they would not give the busses their business (and money) until the busses were fully desegregated, and black people did not have to give up their seat for white people. The Montgomery Improvement Association was led by Martin Luther King. After a long battle, the federal courts ruled that the busses had to be desegregated, therefore affirming the boycott as a huge success. After the victory, Martin Luther King became a very well-known figure associated with the civil rights movement in the United States. In addition, the country turned its attention to Montgomery, and the civil rights movement for a long time, thereby attracting national attention to the movement. What had started as a local movement within Alabama had turned into a national event, and showed the country that the African-Americans were serious about gaining their civil rights. This makes the Montgomery Bus Boycott a significant event in terms of how it heightened public awareness of the civil rights issue and turned it from something local into something nationwide.

            Another huge story that turned the civil rights movement into a national affair was the desegregation of Little Rock Central high school. Lots of whites were upset at the idea of black students attending school with white children. These whites harassed and taunted the children selected to be the first blacks at Little Rock Central high school. Although this may seem like a local event, it got a lot of national press coverage because the civil rights movement was becoming a national issue. In addition, President Eisenhower sent in the 101st Airborne to protect the nine children. Now, the national forces were involved. Not only does that directly show the nationalization of the civil rights movement, but it also brought even more public attention and press to the issue. Because of the direct action taken by the president, as well as the increased press surrounding the Little Rock Nine, the desegregation of Little Rock Central high school was a crucial event for turning the civil rights movement into a huge nationwide issue, from something that started out locally.

Martin Luther King Jr. was by far the most influential leader of the African-American civil rights movement, both with African-Americans and white Americans as well. Again, much of this fame came as a result of his involvement with the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. But what he is perhaps best known for is his “I Have a Dream” speech, in which he painted a picture of a desegregated America, where “little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers,” a message that beautifully summed up the essence of the civil rights movement. Through his rhetoric, Martin Luther King, Jr. made the civil rights movement a national one by speaking directly to the people. His words were powerful, nonviolent, and spoke to many, many Americans of the time. He also organized the March on Washington, containing hundreds of thousands of people who marched on Washington before listening to him give this speech. The magnitude of this event was unlike anything the Civil Rights movement had ever seen. The public took notice, as was natural for an event of its size, and the Civil Rights movement was catapulted to a status of national importance.

            Although the African-American civil rights movement started out on a local level, it quickly grew to one of national importance via the help of two significant events and a strong, charismatic leader. Both the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the desegregation of Little Rock Central high school increased national awareness of the civil rights movement, and the desegregation of Little Rock required direct help from the national armed forces to happen. Martin Luther King, Jr. was an incredibly strong leader who led the civil rights movement to the level of national importance that it required to succeed. Without these events and people, the civil rights movement may never have grown from its local roots to the national level, and therefore may never have succeeded.

(Image From http://www.newsone.com/)

Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Malcom X, and Martin Luther King Jr. are the main people we talk about and study during black history month. Even though these are magnificant kind-hearted people involved in our nation’s history, they are not the only ones. There are many significant people we should be thinking about and remembering during the month of February (or October for the UK).

(Image From http://www.babble.com/)

No matter who we research, study, or put into our thoughts, we should all remember one important thing that we have learned through previous wars and conflicts in our nation’s history. We should remember that “All men are created equal.”

So what are you going to do for Black History Month? Get involved and make a difference!

Gladys Williams of Accessible Arts! The Accessibility Consortium said, “It shows that the African-American experience can be appreciated by those who are not African Americans. Sometimes we put barriers on people and this shows they are just as capable as anyone else.”

Raymond Glenn of Dayton has been an artist for more than 20 years and said he’s always looking for opportunities to show his work.

“There is a need for African-Americans to present positive images of ourself,” he said. “I’m inspired by black people engaged in everyday activities and that’s what I try to display in my work.”

Catherine Vance of Fairborn was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis at age 11 and said having the disease hasn’t held her back any, and sometimes it gives her more time to put into her art work.

The range of works on display prove to be as unique and diverse as the artists who created them using pen and ink, colored pencil, acrylic, clay sculpture, photography, pastels, quilts and other mixed media.

Some of Vance’s work include portraits of Rosa Parks, Paul Laurence Dunbar and a drawing of two slave women reading in the dark by candle light. It is entitled, “When Reading Could Mean A Life.”

“The will and spirit of those people couldn’t be put down and that has always touched me,” Vance said.