On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. She was not simply a tired seamstress who happened to say no. She had served as secretary of the local NAACP since 1943 and had disobeyed bus segregation rules before. Her arrest sparked a bus boycott, and about 17,000 Black residents stopped riding. The boycott lasted until the buses were desegregated 13 months later. Her quiet courage cost her. She lost her job and received death threats. Still, one woman who refused to move helped move a whole nation. Courage is often quiet, and it is usually prepared long before the moment comes.
At 12:35 am on April 15, 1912, the wireless operator and first officer of the Carpathia woke Captain Arthur Rostron with news that the Titanic had struck ice and was sinking. Rostron turned his ship around at once. The Titanic was 58 miles away. He called out extra stokers to make all possible speed, while the crew got doctors, blankets, and hot coffee ready. Through the dark they steamed past icebergs, dodging them as they went. The Carpathia reached the first lifeboat at 4:10 am, about three and a half hours after the call. They were too late for many, but more than 700 people were saved because one captain ran toward danger instead of away.
On the morning of December 6, 1917, a French munitions ship caught fire in Halifax Harbour. Train dispatcher Vincent Coleman learned the burning ship could explode. He was worried about the overnight passenger train from Saint John, carrying about 300 people, which was due to pass right by the harbour. Coleman had left his wife Frances and their two-year-old daughter Eileen at home that morning. Instead of running, he went back to his telegraph key and tapped out a warning: “Hold up the train. Munitions ship on fire and making for Pier 6… Goodbye boys.” Moments later the ship exploded, and Coleman likely died instantly at his post. His message stopped the other inbound trains and alerted the railway to the disaster.
On January 13, 1982, an Air Florida jet struck a Washington bridge and plunged into the ice-covered Potomac River. A rescue helicopter dropped a line to the few survivors clinging to the wreckage in the freezing water. One man kept catching it and handing it to others he thought were worse off than himself. Five people were saved. When the helicopter came back for him, he was gone. For a long time no one knew his name. A Coast Guard investigation later identified him as Arland D. Williams Jr., and President Reagan awarded him the Gold Lifesaving Medal. He did not have to pass the line. He chose to, again and again.
