Sixty years ago today on December 1, a quiet, unassuming diminutive woman took a seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. At that time, I had taken my seat in class at the University of Kansas. Of course, she was Rosa Parks and she took her seat in the white section of a public transportation bus. John Kennedy was elected President of the United States on November 8, 1960, just a few weeks before Rosa Parks sat on that bus. Kennedy would take his seat in the oval office. He was 43, Rosa Parks was 42 and I was 18. In the photo, Rosa Parks is being fingerprinted for taking the "wrong" seat.
Fifteen years after the end of World War II, black Americans who took the front lines of a war were required to take the back lines of a bus. It made no sense. But it took Rosa Park's seat selection to launch permanent ripples of change across America. I am going to take a few minutes today to think of the indisputable courage it must have taken for her to sit down where others, stronger and younger than her, did not.
When you sit down today, give some thought to where you are allowed to sit. It is a privilege that we should not take for granted.
in 1943 I took the bus to school in st joe mo. I always wanted to sit in the back of the bus,, in the seat that had the window all across the back...but only black people were allowed to sit in any seats on the rear side of the exit in the back, once the driver actually stopped the bus and made me come forward...it made me cry ,and I did not understand why they were so special...sometimes all the front seats were filled up and they got to stand up on the bus as well...isn't it funny how you can have a different point of view...I also wondered why I couldn't drink from the negro's only drinking fountains in the union depot in Kansas city Mo...go figure
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