Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks

Synopsis

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks sparked a revolution by sitting still.

Rosa Parks struck the match that lit the fire of the Civil Right Movement. Hardly an old lady too tired to give up her bus seat, she was a 42-year-old NAACP activist committed to social change. The 50,000 footsoldiers of this second American Revolution were her neighbors. Their stories are told with sparkling humor and rich detail, against a backdrop of archival footage and "faux doc" reenactments using vintage cameras.

Over the course of 1955-6, the Montgomery Bus Boycott would test the endurance of the peaceful protesters, overturn an unjust law, and create a legacy that continues to inspire those who work for freedom and justice today. Nominated for a 2002 Academy Award® for Best Documentary Short Subject, Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks revisits this familiar historical event, and finds fresh stories that introduce new heroes to join such well-known figures as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and E.M Nixon. In the film, boycott participants and witnesses are joined by their sons, daughters, grandchildren, cousins, nieces and nephews - white as well as black - to tell this inspiring story more vividly than ever before. Also included are carefully filmed reenactments that bring Parks' and other citizens' experiences vividly to light for today's young audiences.

Impact

Teaching Tolerance, a branch of Southern Poverty Law Centre, provided the finance for Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks. The Southern Poverty Law Center was founded in 1971 as a small civil rights law firm. Today, the Center is internationally known for its tolerance education programs, its legal victories against white supremacists and its tracking of hate groups. To combat the causes of hate, the Center in 1991 established Teaching Tolerance, an educational program to help K-12 teachers foster respect and understanding in the classroom.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a nonprofit organization supported by the contributions of thousands of caring individuals. The Center's work is supported primarily through donor contributions, no government funds are received or used for its efforts.

Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks is part of a classroom curriculum kit including a viewer's guide with classroom activities and historical documents that bring the Montgomery Bus Boycott alive for today's middle- and upper-grade-level students. Produced by Teaching Tolerance, the free kit has been distributed to more than 71,000 classrooms across the country since 2003.

Teaching Tolerance is now one of the nation's leading providers of anti-bias resources – both in print and online. Its award-winning magazine is distributed free twice a year to more than 500,000 educators, and its innovative multimedia kits are provided at no charge to thousands of schools and community groups.

Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks was nominated for an Academy Award in 2004, won a Grammy in the same year, and screened at several festivals across the country.

Winner of 2004 Emmy Award, Children/ Youth/ Family Special

2003 Academy Award nomination
Best Documentary Short Subject

Association of Educational Publishers (EdPress)
2003 Distinguished Achievement Award

Berkeley (Calif.) Film and Video Festival
Grand Festival Award -- Educational

U.S. International Film and Video Festival Education

Columbus (Ohio) Film and Video Festival
Chris Award, Social Issues