Rosa Parks

“Rosa Parks” argues that the Pullman Porters’ creation of the first all-Black labor union led to large-scale political organizing during the civil rights movement. The first words of the poem, “This is for the Pullman Porters who organized” (Line 1), introduce political organizing as an important theme of “Rosa Parks.”

These opening words are the first iteration of the poem’s refrain: “This is for the Pullman Porters who.” This refrain will be repeated with verbs other than "organize," yet most of the verbs Giovanni pairs with the refrain suggest political organizing in some way: The Pullman porters “helped Thurgood Marshall” (Lines 5), “whispered to the traveling men” (Line 10), “silently rejoiced” at the civil rights victory in Brown v. Board of Education (Line 14), “looked over” Emmett Till and “kept / him safe” on their train (Lines 24, 26-27), and also returned his body to his mother so she could have an open-casket funeral and show the world the horrible way in which Till was murdered.

Helping, spreading the word, rejoicing at important desegregation victories, looking out for community members, and showing the world the horrors of racially motivated killings are all important actions in the fight for civil rights for Black Americans, actions that activists and organizers repeated over and over throughout the civil rights movement.