Rest in Peace, Rosa Parks
Okay, sure, you can admire Rosa Parks for sparking an idealistic, peaceful movement for racial equality if you want to. Mostly, we like her because she was pissed. Anger is an important part of successful activism and it's rare that it's so legitimately righteous. Activists these days tend to make statements by voluntarily putting themselves in positions that lack dignity -- giant puppet costumes; Michael Moore films; Crawford, Texas -- here's the woman who made history by keeping hers.