The Islamic Center of Southern California extends its deepest condolences to the relatives and friends of the civil rights activist, Rosa Parks. Parks passed away on October 24, 2005, at the age of 92. Before Martin Luther King Jr., before Malcolm X, before Bobby Kennedy, Rosa Parks performed the courageous act that precipitated the long overdue campaign for civil rights in the United States. May God have mercy on her soul and give her relatives and friends the patience to bear her passing.

Rosa Parks grew up in Montgomery, Alabama at a time when it was the social norm to segregate African Americans from white Americans and, as a result, deprive them of their basic rights. African Americans were prevented from registering to vote. They received inferior education. They could not get good jobs. They could not receive fair trials. This culture of mistreatment even extended to the public transportation system. A white person could force a black person into giving up his seat on a city bus. It was the norm. In such a society, Rosa Parks decided enough was enough. On December 1, 1955 she was riding the Cleveland Avenue bus. A lone white man boarded the bus and the bus driver asked Rosa Parks and three other blacks to get up and move to the back of the bus. The others moved but not Rosa. She refused to give up her seat and was arrested. Her arrest started the famous bus boycott by African Americans and was the first step in the fight against the Jim Crow laws that codified their mistreatment. By performing this brave public act, Rosa had riveted the attention of the nation on the crimes committed in our society. By refusing to give up her seat she broke a practice deeply rooted in our society. A practice rooted in the false idea that one race is superior to another.

By all accounts, Rosa Parks was dignified and soft-spoken. She always downplayed her role in the civil rights movement though she was its pioneer. The Islamic Center honors and respects Rosa Parks for her strong character and modest personality.