Calm and powerful.
The words describe Rosa Parks, a black woman who refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in 1955, and they describe locals who win the yearly Rosa Parks Quiet Courage Committee award recipients.
Each year, committee honors local civil rights activists with the Quiet Courage award, which acknowledges people in the community who fight for justice and equality by exhibiting the same kind of courage that Rosa Parks exhibited.
“Usually, when you think of someone who is courageous, you think of someone who is loud and bold,” said Karen Cole-Smith, 2nd vice-chair of RPQCC. “But Rosa Parks was not boisterous. She was quite calm and powerful.”
This year, the RPQCC has chosen four recipients for the Quiet Courage award: Cora Roberts of Gainesville, Carol Thomas of Alachua, Mary Hall Daniel of Hillard and UF teacher Dr. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons of Gainesville.
The Rev. Milford Lewis Griner, founder and chairperson of RPQCC, said that he started the organization after he put together a tribute to Parks in early 2006. Griner said that more than 300 people came out to a local church to honor Parks, and asked him if it was going to become an annual thing.
“I figured the best way to keep that going was by forming a committee,” Griner said. “I wanted everyone to continue remembering who Rosa Parks was.”
Griner thinks that it’s important for people to know that if it wasn’t for Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., never would have emerged.
“Many of the morals and freedoms that we take for granted and abide by today are a result of Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement,” he said. “I want people to continue fighting for equality and justice just as she did up until her death.”
He also believes that it’s important for youth in particular to understand the importance of the Civil Rights Movement.
In addition to four adult recipients, each year RPQCC chooses one youth to receive the Legacy Bearer award. Waldo resident Dominique Jackson of Hawthorne High and Middle School was chosen as the 2009 recipient of the award.
”We know at some point the legacy bearer will have quiet courage for the good of the community,” said Cole-Smith of the RPQCC.
UF teacher Dr. Simmons, one of the adult recipients of the Quiet Courage award, was a youth herself?an 18-year-old, to be exact? when she first got involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Simmons began to march for civil rights in 1962, and marched with Dr. King when he came to Atlanta, Georgia.
RPQCC member Patricia Hilliard-Nunn describes Simmons as a non-violent activist for peace and justice, and someone who she can always count on to stand up and fight for justice.
“UF is fortunate to have someone [Simmons] who has that history in our midst,” Hilliard-Nunn said. “We can go and tap the information that someone like Simmons has, and we need to increase that.”
As a teenager, Simmons participated in sit-ins as a member of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Simmons was so passionate about the movement that she dropped out of college to participate fully in the cause before earning her Ph.D. in Religion several years later.
“I got into all kinds of trouble,” Simmons said. “The school didn’t want us involved because they were afraid for us. I was battling all of these people and my school that was threatening to take away my scholarships and send me home.”
She also organized a voting campaign in 1964, traveling in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.
She said that Parks, along with an endless list of other women, inspired her to get involved in the movement when she was a teenager.
“I was a teenager among these women, and that set me out on a great road to knowing that no matter how dangerous a situation is, you can stand up for what is right,” Simmons said.
Currently, Simmons is one of the few people on campus speaking out about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, she said.
“I’m still an activist even though I went back to school,” Simmons said. “I’ll never get that out of my blood?being an activist?because we can bring about change. I saw it with my own eyes.”
RPQCC member Hilliard-Nunn thinks that many people share the same views, but most are afraid to express them. She thinks it’s important for the people who do speak out to be recognized.
“There are a lot of popular civil rights activists, but there are a lot of unknown people who have exhibited quiet courage,” Hilliard-Nunn said. “There are a lot of people in this community who are quiet, unsung heroes.”
All five award recipients will be honored on Nov. 29 at 4 p.m. The memorial and award program will take place at Compassionate Outreach Ministries, 320 SE 43rd St., in Gainesville.
