The butterfly at the front of the bus

Rosa Parks, the famous American civil rights activist, is best known for refusing to sit at the back of the bus. She was arrested for her action and subsequently lost her job as a seamstress.  Here is the picture taken of Parks at the time of her arrest in Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955.

The arrest served as a catalyst for the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott, which came into effect from the day of Park's arrest and lasted for over a year. The majority of bus riders in Montgomery were Black and the revenues of the bus company declined sharply.  Let's take a moment to think about all that walking, determination and sacrifice of those who supported the boycott for so long.  This successful boycott is often credited with ushering in the American civil rights movement.

At the time, Rosa Parks was portrayed as a private citizen who was "simply tired of giving-in" but this isn't the whole story.  In fact, Parks was the latest of a long list of Black women who had protested Montgomery's racist laws.  These included Irene Morgan in 1946, Sarah Louise Keys in 1955, and the members of the Browder v. Gayle lawsuit (Claudette Colvin, Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, and Mary Louise Smith) who were arrested in Montgomery just months before Parks. 

Here's another picture of Rosa Parks also taken in 1955 with Dr. Martin Luther King clearly visible in the background.  Parks was the secretary of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) chapter in Montgomery at the time. Why did Parks' actions serve as a catalyst for the bus boycott while others doing the same thing in the same place at almost the same time did not?


Let's go back to the topic of complexity raised in the February 21st post.  The attributes of complex systems are very different from simple or complicated systems.  Still complex systems do follow some rules.  Rosa Parks and the history of that time illustrate a phenomenon of complex systems commonly called "the butterfly effect."

Allow me to explain some of the differences between types of systems. Relatively few factors influence a simple system.  Regardless of the recipe, there are a limited number of ingredients involved in baking a cake. Complex systems are produced by many factors.  The economy, the weather, an ecosystem or a society each have many and various players that influence the system. Each of these has a differing role and each is likely to act on the system in a different manner.

A school board is also complex.  The people influencing it include a multitude of students with differing needs, teachers, parents with varying interests, school and management staff, unions, politicians at the local and provincial level, administrators locally and provincially, and of course citizens acting in both the local and provincial spheres.  There is the condition of buildings to take into account, availability of resources such as libraries, textbooks and gyms, and the wealth or lack thereof of the neighbourhoods and children it serves.  Very complex indeed.

In popular thinking, the butterfly effect attributes a change in weather to the beating of the wings of a fictional butterfly; a small action producing a large effect. But this isn't quite right.  The reality is that a complex system has to be primed for change or at a tipping point before the actions of the 'butterfly' can actually have an effect.

For the civil rights movement, Rosa Parks was the butterfly.  In 1944, a full decade before Parks, the famous Black athlete Jackie Robinson, was also arrested for his refusal to go to the back of the bus.  The civil rights movement organized during the intervening decade without obvious effect, that is, until Parks. It must have been very frustrating for those involved to see such great injustice remain in place all those years.

Leaders of the civil rights movement would not have known that they were about to make a breakthrough with Parks' arrest but there may have been indications of impending change as activists had repeatedly tried this tactic earlier in the year.  Likely due to the similar actions of others and similar responses by authorities, there was a well-formulated strategy, an organizing committee, and a legal defense team who knew what to expect when Parks was arrested and who were prepared to act.  The successful Montgomery Bus Boycott did not happen in a vacuum! Still at that time, there wasn't much theory to give civil rights activists an understanding of how systems change. Rather the many people who supported the civil rights movement often relied on deeply held faith to give them the strength to persevere.

Complex systems resist change and generally change only when measures aimed at preserving the existing system have been tried and exhausted.  The question is -- Are there indications that our educational system is on the cusp of fundamental change and why is this important?

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Allow me to take a moment and honour a special person who recently passed away.  Bob Barlow was a 47-year-old trustee with the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board. Bob was selfless as few others are.  Once Bob jumped into his car, drove six hours to Ottawa, spoke to a small group here interested in running for office, and then hopped back into his car to drive back to Hamilton.  That's the kind of person he was.  Bob cared.

There are many such examples.  Bob took on the challenge of the baseball league in Hamilton.  Over time he worked to improve the league and it went from one team to 44. Bob believed that through organized sport, children would have a sense of belonging and could learn about team work.  No child for lack of means was turned away from taking part in a Hamilton baseball team during Bob's watch.

Bob understood as few others do that politics is not about power but about influence and he influenced many.  Trustee Barlow was the shining example of a caring politician in a time when more are needed.  Bob, we all miss you very much.


The views expressed in this blog are personal opinions only.