Rosa Parks refused to stand up for a white person on a bus in 1955. Following Rosa Parks, many people of color refused and boycotted the buses, going without public transportation for months. But Rosa Parks, together with King, among others, ensured that bus segregation disappeared. From 1956 onwards, black people no longer had to stand up for a white person on a bus.
America’s first black president
The United States of America recently has a black president. The Republican Party has also elected a black leader for the first time in its history, namely Michael Steele. Naturally, there are many reasons for this change, but one of the most important is a remarkable woman. Rosa Parks changed history forever when she refused to stand up for a white person on the bus in December 1955.
Black people had to give up their seats on the bus to a white person – the story of Rosa Parks
Clothing seamstress Parks took the bus home from the Fair Department Store in Montgomery on December 1, 1955. The 36 seats on the bus were quickly occupied. In the back sat the colored people, 22 in total. 14 white people in the front. When a white person had to stand, the bus driver pointed out to the people in the back of the bus that the 4 passengers in the row had to stand up just behind the white people to give up their seats. But no one responded to that. Actually, this wasn’t necessary. The bus was divided into a white and a black section and everyone sat where they were allowed to sit. The bus driver then went to the people in the black section and ordered them to give up their seats. Three men did this and stood at the back of the bus, but Rosa Parks refused. She argued that she was in her own section and that she had no intention of getting up. However, the bus driver then indicated that he determined where the white section was located and said that she had been sitting there from that moment on. However, she didn’t flinch even when the driver said he could even arrest her to enforce segregation laws. However, Parks remained where she was and she was indeed arrested. She received a report and was locked up. `
Rosa Parks fights on
Rosa Parks was accused of violating Alabama’s bus segregation laws. She was released from prison through the intervention of a white lawyer and DJ Nixon, the leader of the colored population of the US, but Nixon and the lawyer did appeal to her willingness to denounce segregation forever. When she decided she wanted to go to trial, it was a heroic act. People of color at that time in the US were not worth much and their rights were limited. Her family was, to say the least, not happy with her decision to continue fighting for the rights of the colored population.
Rosa Parks learns that she can achieve a lot together with white people
Source: 271277, Pixabay
Parks had once participated in a mixed workshop at that time and had come away with a positive outcome. She had learned during those sessions with white women that it was indeed possible for there to be harmony between the races. The Womens Political Council, consisting of highly educated black women, was called in and they drafted a protest letter on the theme that yet another black woman had been arrested because she did not want to give up her seat for a white person. This was supported by the call for all colored people in Montgomery not to take the bus that Monday. Nixon was also called in and he was immediately in favor of the bus boycott. Marten Luther King also thought it was an excellent idea. Soon, 50 black leaders met in King’s church, the plans were adopted and everyone promised to publicize the plans. On the Saturday before Monday, December 5, thousands of people from Montgomery had already seen the pamphlets or heard the news. An article appeared in a newspaper with the headline “Negro groups prepare bus boycott. On Monday, the day of days, Coretta King got up before dawn to see how the action would proceed. The first bus she saw passing by was completely EMPTY. And that also applied to the following copies. The (white) police checked everywhere along the routes. According to them, their black fellow human beings could only stay off the buses because of the violence of others.
Demand release for Rosa Parks
Meanwhile, Rosa Parks had been sentenced in court that morning. The courtroom hall was packed with fellow people of color. They demanded that Parks be released, something that had already been arranged by paying bail and allowing her to return home on those conditions.
Martin Luther King calls a meeting about the boycott of public transportation by people of color
Once this was done, further negotiations continued between the other parties and a new organization was formed, the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). Another meeting was called that same evening and anyone who wanted was allowed to come. King, who had now been declared chairman, was shocked when he arrived at the church and saw that the entire building was surrounded. Not by white people, but by black people who all wanted to be at the meeting. The crowd decided that night that they had had enough of being treated like second-class citizens. The boycott continued. This was not easy for most people who were completely dependent on public transport and often had lower-level jobs. The cheap bus transport ensured that they could get to and from work every day and now that they refused this it meant enormous problems.
Huge opposition to bus boycott by black people in the US
In addition, the action was opposed on all kinds of fronts. Taxi fares were suddenly linked to minimum amounts, and stories appeared in newspapers that were not true. A kind of carpool idea was introduced to solve that first problem. However, colored people from various classes had to cross a threshold, because there too the differences were still large. Meanwhile, bus companies lost revenue from between 30,000 and 40,000 bus tickets per day. On December 17, when the buses had already been boycotted for 12 days, negotiations were resumed with the bus companies. Central to this was, among other things, that the companies would hire black drivers in the future. Segregation was obviously another thorny issue. In the first week of 1956 it became known that the bus company was on the verge of bankruptcy. The black population was increasingly tormented by measures that went nowhere. Every carpooler was ticketed for no reason. Kling, who also took people with him in his car, was even arrested and thrown in jail. The threats were also frequent and there was even a bomb attack on King’s house. The pastor was then thrown into jail again.
December 1956: Bus segregation is over
On March 9, 1956, President Eisenhower requested a secret report on the race issue. On June 4, 1956, a panel of three federal judges ruled on the segregation issue. By a vote of two to one, the justices struck down Montgomery’s bus segregation ordinances as unconstitutional. An appeal was immediately filed and the segregation laws remained in force pending a ruling, but the black population was extremely happy with this ruling. It wasn’t until December 20, 1956, that King was able to inform the black population that the run was over. Bus segregation was over by a Supreme Court ruling. my view on