Black History Month 2020 (1)
Rosa Parks was a civil rights activist who refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her defiance sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Its success launched nationwide efforts to end racial segregation of public facilities.
The Montgomery City Code required that all public transportation be segregated. This was accomplished with a line roughly in the middle of the bus separating white passengers in the front of the bus and African American passengers in the back.
On December 1, 1955, after a long day’s work at a Montgomery department store, where she worked as a seamstress, Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus for home. She took a seat in the first of several rows designated for “colored” passengers. Eventually, the bus was full and the driver noticed that several white passengers were standing in the aisle. The bus driver stopped the bus and moved the sign separating the two sections back one row, asking four black passengers to give up their seats.
Three of the other black passengers on the bus complied with the driver, but Parks refused and remained seated. The driver demanded, “Why don’t you stand up?” to which Rosa Parks replied, “I don’t think I should have to stand up.” The driver called the police and had her arrested.
Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing a bus driver’s instructions to give up her seat to a white passenger. She later recalled that her refusal wasn’t because she was physically tired, but that she was tired of giving in.
Rosa Parks’ arrest led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted for 381 days and ended with a Supreme Court ruling declaring segregation on public transit systems to be unconstitutional.
This tweet by @oshinsims made me realise that, unlike other celebrations (such as Pride), there is not much of a celebration of Black History Month around the simblr community (at least that I have seen). So I thought it would be nice to commemorate Black History Month this year by learning and then by spreading knowledge, which is what this celebration should be all about. Anyone who is interested is of course welcome to do this too! I would love to see who inspired you!
I decided to start with Rosa Parks because her story was the first contact I had with the civil rights movement. I remember I was so shocked to learn about segregation in public facilities when I was kid and her story and bravery stuck with me so much.
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