Montgomery, December
1, 1955. An African-American seamstress and secretary at the local National
Association for Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) refused to give up her
seat to a white man in the black section of a city bus. This determined lady
many years later said she was determined to "take this as an opportunity to let it be known that [she] did not want to be treated in that manner and that people had endured it far too long." By doing this she defied the Jim Crow laws that had been in force since 1890. These laws mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities of the Southern States of the USA. This included schools, public places, transportation, taxis, toilets, restaurants, stores, drinking fountains and the army. There was no school bus system for black schoolchildren. Although the Jim Crow laws were officially applied only in the Southern States, racial discrimination was de facto practiced in the North, in particular under Woodrow Wilson, the first Southern president elected since 1856. Candidates to posts in federal workplaces had to submit a photo.
Following her refusal to leave her seat to a white passenger, Rosa Parks was arrested and charged with violation of Chapter 6, Section 11 of segregation law of the Montgomery city code, although technically she had not taken a white-only seat since she had been in the coloured section of the bus. Edgar Nixon, president of the Montgomery NAACP and Rosa Parks' friend Clifford Durr bailed her out of prison the next evening. Two days later, a bus boycott by black people was announced. Following this, Rosa Parks was charged with disorderly conduct, but her trial, which lasted only 30 minutes, did not stop the boycott. Despite the heavy rain, the black community persevered in their boycott. Some rode in carpools, while others traveled in black-operated cabs which had decided to charge the same fare as the bus. The remaining commuters walked, some as far as 32 km. The boycott lasted 381 days, severely damaging the transport company's financed. Eventually, the US Supreme Court stated that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional and so Montgomery city repealed its law requiring segregation on public buses.
Although Parks became a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement, she also suffered for her act. She was fired from her job as a seamstress and received death threats for several years. After the boycott, she continued to militate for the recognition of coloured people's rights, investigating cases in which black citizens were victims of false accusations as well as cases of killings and rapes of black people.All her life she donated most of the money from her interventions in conferences to civil rights causes, and lived on her staff salary and her husband's modest pension. She participated in the Black Power movement, supported the Black Panthers and organized for the freedom of black political prisoners, in particular cases involving self-defence against white assailants. She died in 2005, aged 92.
Although Parks became a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement, she also suffered for her act. She was fired from her job as a seamstress and received death threats for several years. After the boycott, she continued to militate for the recognition of coloured people's rights, investigating cases in which black citizens were victims of false accusations as well as cases of killings and rapes of black people.All her life she donated most of the money from her interventions in conferences to civil rights causes, and lived on her staff salary and her husband's modest pension. She participated in the Black Power movement, supported the Black Panthers and organized for the freedom of black political prisoners, in particular cases involving self-defence against white assailants. She died in 2005, aged 92.
On December 1, we celebrated the extraordinary courage and determination of an ordinary woman which changed history.
"You must never be fearful of what you're doing if it is right." Rosa Parks
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| Rosa Parks in a public bus, in 1956 after Montgomery city's law on segregation in public transports was repealed. |
