If Rosa Parks were still alive today, she would be celebrating her 112th birthday.
In one quiet act of resistance and courage on December 1, 1955, Parks became the face of a 13-month movement to end bus segregation in the South, famously known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and secured her place in American History as the mother of the Civil Rights Movement.
On that day, Rosa Parks, an assistant tailor in Montgomery, Alabama, boarded the 2857 bus on the Cleveland Avenue Line, expecting a routine ride home. But after being asked to get up and give up her seat to a white man, Rosa Parks refused, choosing to stand her ground against injustice.
When the bus driver, James Blake, threatened to call the police, Parks politely responded, “You may do that.” And he did. Rosa Parks was then arrested and charged with violating the segregation law of the Montgomery City code.
This is the version of the story most people know, but there’s so much more to what led to her arrest and the history after Rosa Parks helped launch a revolutionary movement.
American Educator Mary Fair Burks And The Women’s Political Council Had Been Planning A Boycott Years Before Rosa Parks’ Arrest
View this post on Instagram
Montgomery’s 1955 bus boycott started long before Rosa Parks’ arrest.
A group of determined Black women (The Women’s Political Council) led by American educator and activist Mary Fair Burks had already been pushing for change and even confronted Montgomery’s officials about the city’s unfair bus policies in 1953, but their concerns were ignored.
Momentum for a boycott intensified in March 1955 after 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat to a white passenger.
By the time Rosa Parks was arrested in December, the WPC already had fliers circulating announcing a boycott.
So, while the protest helped propel Martin Luther King Jr. into becoming a national hero, it was Black women who were at the forefront of the operation.
Rosa Parks Didn’t Refuse To Give Up Her Seat Because She Was Tired
Contrary to popular belief, Rosa Parks didn’t refuse to give up her seat that day because she was physically tired. As she put it in her autobiography, My Story, “She was just tired of giving in.”
Parks was only 42 at the time, much younger than how history books often depict her. If that doesn’t put things into perspective for you, Tessa Thompson is turning 42 this October, and Beyonce is 45 and still Beyoncé-ing.
Also, Parks was already seated in the “colored” section when the bus driver demanded she move further back to make room for a white passenger.
And while Parks was an activist, her decision wasn’t planned. It was only after the driver asked her to move that she decided, at that moment, that she wouldn’t.
That Wasn’t The First Time Rosa Parks Had Trouble With That Bus Driver
In 1943, a decade before her arrest, Parks had a run-in with the same bus driver, James Blake.
During that encounter, Blake kicked her off the bus after she refused to re-enter through the back door after paying her fare at the front.
“I never wanted to be on that man’s bus again,” she wrote in her autobiography. “After that, I made a point of looking at who was driving the bus before I got on. I didn’t want any more run-ins with that mean man.”
Fast forward to December 21, 1956, when the Montgomery Bus Boycott ended, and the Supreme Court struck down bus segregation.
Parks boarded a bus to mark the historic moment, and—because the universe has a sense of humor—it just so happened to be James Blake’s bus. A coincidence, but totally fitting.
Weeks After Her Arrest, Rosa Parks Was Apprehended A 2nd Time For Her Role In The Boycott
Rosa Parks was on the board of directors of the group that organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott and briefly worked as a dispatcher, arranging carpool rides for boycotters.
On February 21, 1956, a grand jury indicted Parks and several others for violating a state law against organizing boycotts.
She was arrested again, along with 114 others, and The New York Times ran a front-page photo of her being fingerprinted by police.
Rosa Parks Had To Flee To Detroit After Her Arrest
Weeks after her second arrest, Parks lost her job as a seamstress, though her employer insisted it wasn’t because of the boycott.
Her husband, Raymond, was also forced to quit his job after being told he could not discuss the boycott or his wife at work.
As death threats began to pour in, Parks and her family made the difficult decision to leave Montgomery. In 1957, they relocated to Detroit, where Parks found a new career as an administrative aide for Congressman John Conyers, Jr.
Rosa Parks Was An Integral Part Of The Black Power Movement
As some activists moved toward more radical Black liberation movements, Rosa Parks supported them.
In 1968, she attended the Black Power conference with Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael (Kame Ture) and other prominent activists.
That same year, Ms. Parks was part of a militant group of Blacks who refused to endorse any presidential candidate.
Rosa Parks Disagreed With Martin Luther King’s Strategy
One of the reasons Parks and her husband fled to the South was because she disagreed with Dr. King’s strategy to move the civil rights movement forward.
Parks felt that civil disobedience has its limits and eventually turned to Malcolm X, who advocated for fighting back “by any means necessary.”
She also attended the Black Political Convention in Gary and the Black Power Conference in Philadelphia, proving that she was a lot more radical than history books give her credit for.
