The Most Hauntingly Powerful Image Of President Obama Yet This Year

[Playinghardball]

While in Michigan, President Obama boarded the bus and sat in the very same seat where Rose Parks made history. This is the amazing photo that came of it


President Barack Obama sits on the famed Rosa Parks bus at the Henry Ford Museum following an event in Dearborn, Mich., April 18, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

[russspeakeasy]

1. Cool !

[patrice]

2. Body language says this is really kind of a private moment for him . . .

as private as possible when you're the President, that is.

[HiPointDem]

16. And the cameraperson is there to record that private moment.

[freshwest]

21. Thus not private to you, then?

[AnneD]

3. And to think that bus...

was found in the junkyard and almost got sold for scrape.

[Brigid]

4. Great pic!

He's wondering what it must have been like for your choice of seat on a bus to be an issue just because some white idiot gets on the bus and decides he wants it.

[James48]

5. We've come so far.

Yet the right wants to take us backwards.

Never, never, never, never again.

Rosa Parks sits in the front of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1956 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregation illegal on the city's bus system. Behind Parks is Nicholas C. Chriss, a UPI reporter covering the event.

United Press photo. Location of Original: New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection.

Library of Congress- photo taken December 21, 1956

[Tarheel_Dem]

8. A very moving picture. Here's a link to a Newsweek article about Claudette Colvin, who....

was Rosa Parks' predecessor. She didn't get the same attention, perhaps because she was only 15 y.o. at the time, but I found this article fascinating, terrifying, and yet uplifting.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/03/01/a-forgotten-contribution.html

[nmbluesky]

18. I heard a bit story about her..

[Tarheel_Dem]

19. I think she was considered too young by the movement. Rosa Parks was thought to be.....

much more appropriate, with an impeccable background. That's how it had to be back then, and if I'm honest, some of that still holds true today. We've seen some of that with Trayvon Martin, where if you're gonna be murdered by a caucasian, you better be the perfect victim, with a spotless record. It's sad, but it's true.

[jwirr]

22. Looks like he is setting in the same seat.

[Tarheel_Dem]

6. "Powerful" indeed. I was a mere child when the bus boycotts took place, but....

looking at where we are today, I can honestly say that we've made a lot of progress. The look on his face is that of a child in awe. The imagery is not lost on me. It gives me chills.

[Whisp]

7. that's a powerful message to the republicans

(and some pretend democrats) that are treating him like he should be at the back of the bus.

[cachukis]

9. Note he is in the seat behind. Well thought out.

[FailureToCommunicate]

10. Good catch! That makes this photo of Obama even more powerful.

bigtree's post included this powerful quote from the President:

“I just sat in there for a moment and pondered the courage and tenacity that is part of our very recent history but is also part of that long line of folks who sometimes are nameless, oftentimes didn’t make the history books, but who constantly insisted on their dignity, their share of the American dream.”

[Tarheel_Dem]

20. Excellent quote.

[spanone]

11. who would have ever thought? as a kid in the 50's this is amazing.

[polichick]

12. Very cool.

[Tax Man]

13. rec /

[riverwalker]

14. wow

amazing. Speaks volumes. Thank you.

[Tennessee Gal]

15. What a quietly dignified man.

I am proud he is my President.

He exudes class in the face of decidedly classless behavior by those on the right.

[obliviously]

17. What does he see out the window?