12 Songs By Black Women That Channel Rosa Parks' Spirit

L–R: Nina Simone, Alicia Keys, Rosa Parks, Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige. Source: Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images, Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions, Photo12 / Universal Images Group via Getty Images, Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy, Carol Lee Rose / Getty Images. Art Design: Siobhan Dixon.

Happy Birthday, Rosa Parks!

Affectionately known as the “mother of the civil rights movement,” Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on Feb. 4, 1913.

She will forever exemplify civil disobedience and defiance—especially to Black women—for refusing to give up her seat to standing white passengers on a crowded public bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on Dec. 1, 1955.

Some have tried to trivialize Parks’ actions as her simply wanting to rest her feet after a hard day’s work. For example, in the 2002 comedy Barbershop Cedric The Entertainer’s character stupidly says: “What? ’Cause she sat her a– down on a bus?… Man, she was tired. That’s what you do when you tired—you sit ya a— down.”

Unbeknownst to many, at the time of Parks’ arrest—she was also fined $10 and charged $4 in court costs, both of which she refused to pay—she was already an avid activist. She worked with the NAACP on other civil rights cases, including the Scottsboro Boys case, in which nine Black youths were falsely accused of sexually assaulting two white women.

So, her decision to remain seated on the bus was just that, a conscious choice and an act of rebellion against Jim Crow laws in the South and racial discrimination at large.

In her 1992 autobiography, Rosa Parks: My Story, she wrote: “I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was 42. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

Park’s non-compliance to surrender her seat and stand and her audacity to appeal the conviction, therefore challenging legal segregation in Alabama, precipitated the 381-day-long Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Rosa Parks sitting on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956. Source: Bettmann / Getty

Spearheaded by Martin Luther King Jr., the boycott transcended Alabama and led to protests against segregation laws across the United States, essentially, catalyzing the civil rights movement.

At the age of 92, Parks died on Oct. 24, 2005, in Detroit.

On Feb. 4, 2013, what would have been her 100th birthday, The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, announced Rosa Parks National Day of Courage in honor of her inspiring life and valiance.

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Today, we are all encouraged to invoke the “Strength, Courage & Wisdom” of the African-American activist and “Risk It All” to “Stand Up For Something” or “Make It Happen.” Whatever “it” means for you, here are 12 powerful songs by Black female artists that embody Rosa Parks’ fearless spirit.

What songs embolden you, like Alicia Keys, to wear a vest with an “S” on the chest?

1. “Stand Up For Something” – Andra Day Feat. Common, 2017

Notable Lyrics: “It all means nothing / If you don’t stand up for something / You can’t just talk the talk, you got to walk that walk.”