Fifty Years
On December 1, 1955, Chapter 6, Section 11 of the City Code of Montgomery, Alabama prescribed that the first four rows of public bus seats were reserved for “white people.” Although more than 75% of Montgomery city bus passengers were black, the ordinance also required black patrons sitting in the “colored section” to abandon their seats if necessary to provide seating for white patrons.
That day, a forty-two year old seamstress from Tuskegee, Alabama was seated in the “colored section” of a city bus when she was asked by the bus driver to give up her seat for a white man.
Rosa Parks responded, “I don’t think I should have to stand up.”
She was arrested and charged with violation of the segregation ordinance. She was later tried, convicted, and fined $10, plus $4 in court costs. The resulting outrage formed the impetus for this country’s civil rights movement.
On October 24, 2005, Rosa Parks died the age of 92.
That’s a shame, because these days we can use all the Rosa Parks’ we can get, and I don’t see many people out there like her.
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