bus journey

On today in 1955 in the state of Alabama a black woman called Rosa Parks sat on a “black seat” on the bus. Rosa had worked a long day as a seamstress (a job sewing and making clothes). In these times it was the law was that a black person had to give up their seat for a white person, if a white person couldn’t find a “white seat”. This was called the segregation law, which also stated that black and whites had to sit on specific areas of the bus. Black people didn’t have equal rights to white people.

A white man was unable to find a “white seat” and the bus driver demanded that Rosa Parks gave up her seat to the white man. Rosa refused and the bus driver had her arrested. Rosa was found guilty of breaking the law and ordered to pay $14. This doesn’t sound like a lot of money but was significantly more in those days when pay was lower. Rosa was bailed out of jail by her friend Mr. Nixon, a civil rights leader.

The majority of black people successfully boycotted the buses for 13 months, finding alternative ways to and from work. The bus companies relied on the money from their mistreated black passengers. The boycott came to an end when the United States Supreme Court ruled that the segregation laws were not legal. This perhaps wouldn’t have happened without Rosa Parks standing up to what she felt was wrong. In 1992, Rosa Parks said of the bus story: “The real reason of my not standing up was I felt that I had a right to be treated as any other passenger.”

Today Rosa Parks’ story is taught to children worldwide in primary schools. This is so that we never forgot how minority groups (such as black people) have been treated in the past: unfair and unequal. This is the same reason I post the story of Rosa Parks, let’s never forget our history and let’s certainly never repeat it.

Blog about equality again soon,

Antony