Homage To Rosa Parks

Homage To Rosa Parks
(RIP - February 4, 1913,- October 24, 2005)

On December 1, 1955
in Montgomery, Alabama
(The cradle of the Confederacy)
Rosa Parks refused to obey
bus driver James F. Blake’s order
that she give up her seat on the bus
to make way for a white passenger
after the white section was filled
Rosa was arrested
As she was being taken away
she made a fateful vow
From this day forward
I will not get back on the bus
Until Jim Crow gets off!

Rosa’s act of defiance
and the ensuing
Montgomery Bus Boycott
became important symbols
of the modern
Civil Rights Movement

Rosa became an international icon
of resistance to racial segregation
She organized and collaborated
with local and national
civil rights leaders like
Edgar Nixon
President of the local chapter
of the NAACP and
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
a new minister in town who
gained national prominence
in the civil rights movement

I will not get back on the bus
Until Jim Crow gets off!

The bus boycott lasted 381 days
Dozens of public buses stood idle for months
as thousands of the black residents of Montgomery
walked at considerable personal sacrifice
rather than get back on the bus

After the bus transit company
suffered enough financial loss
to cry uncle
the city of Montgomery repealed
the Jim Crow law that required
segregation on public buses
(Eventually the US Supreme Court
ruled that such segregation was
unconstitutional)
In the end
the Black residents of Montgomery won
and Jim Crow was forced off the bus!

God bless you Rosa Parks!

jhmarkowitz
Philadelphia, Pa. 2012