When you think of Rosa Parks, you probably first think of her sitting on a bus, not on a yoga mat in lotus pose—but she did both! Just like her historic civil rights activism, Rosa Parks’s yoga journey was incredibly inspiring.
What Does Yoga Do for You?
When considering starting a yoga practice, many people ask, “Well, what does yoga do for you?” They’re curious about the benefits for mind, body, and overall well being. Our girl Rosa was undoubtedly interested in these things in the late 60s and early 70s when she started practicing as well. But from what we know, Rosa also took things further and lived a true yogic lifestyle. She took her yoga off the mat and into the disadvantaged and marginalized spaces she inhabited.
Keep reading to learn more about Rosa Parks’s yoga experience, and how we can allow it to inspire us to pursue social justice like she did.
Rosa Parks’s yoga practice was private
It’s not common knowledge that Rosa Parks practiced yoga. Stephanie Evans, professor, researcher, and author of the book “Black Women’s Yoga History: Memoirs of Inner Peace,” discovered unpublished photos of Rosa Parks practicing yoga in the Library of Congress’s digital archive.
Rosa Parks learned yoga privately, in her home with other family members, and she kept her practice private going forward. Of course, we can guess at the reasons why Rosa Parks and others like her were drawn to practice yoga:
Yoga is empowering
In a society that purposefully disempowered women and people of color, yoga may have been a safe place for her to explore her inner power and express herself through breath and movement.Yoga inspires peace
Slowing down through conscious yoga practice helps cultivate inner peace both on and off the mat.Yoga holds many personal and social benefits
All the benefits of yoga including empowerment, peace, physical health, and vitality not only benefit us who practice, but extend to those we come into contact with. Through those people, they extend to our broader communities and ultimately throughout the universe.
But why did Rosa Parks keep her yoga practice private? We can’t know the answer, but we can apply her choice to our own lives by remembering that yoga is not a competition. Yoga is part of a deep, inner, spiritual practice. Being a yogi is not about posting ourselves in crazy poses on Instagram, or showing off the latest leggings in our community classes. Rather, it’s about learning to be present, and living life in accordance with yogic principles.
Rosa Parks’s yoga practice was life-long
Rosa Parks first learned yoga in the late 60s, and sources say she kept practicing until her death in 2005. It wasn’t an easy road.
After her initial refusal to move on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama, which inspired the Montgomery Bus boycott, Rosa Parks lost her job at a local department store. She moved to Detroit, Michigan in search of more career opportunities.
She and her husband were both in bad health throughout the 1970s, and because Rosa Parks donated most of the money from her speaking engagements to civil rights causes, they lived in poverty.
Both her husband and brother died of cancer in 1977, as well as her mother in 1979.
Perhaps yoga was a safe place for Rosa Parks in the storm of the world’s troubles. It can be that for us too. The benefits of our practice only multiply the more often we step onto our mats.
Rosa Parks’s yoga practice inspired her advocacy
So, what does yoga do for you?
Yoga inspires us to live authentically; it inspires us to bring peace into socially-unjust spaces; it inspires us to keep going.
Surely, it inspired Rosa Parks toward all these things.
We hope that after reading this blog you feel inspired to live and to practice yoga like Rosa Parks. We’re here to help you on your journey!