Rosa Parks Fought Racism and Sexism

The death and courage of Rosa Parks is receiving excellent coverage in the national and local media, but what most reports fail to mention is that Parks fought not one, but two major obstacles: racism and sexism.

Here's Lynne Olson, author of "Freedom's Daughters: The Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement from 1830 to 1970," in an interview with the AP:

"After the bus boycott got going and [the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.] got involved, they wouldn't even let Rosa Parks speak at the first mass meeting," she said.

"She asked to speak, and one of the ministers said he thought she had done enough."

In 1963, tens of thousands of women who joined the March on Washington witnessed a tribute to prominent women, songs by several women, and brief remarks by the entertainer Josephine Baker, but no woman made a speech.