Yesterday a black woman named Rosa Parks got arrested by sitting in the “black section” at the bus. Most of the white passengers at the bus were shaken.
- It’s evidently that the “black section” is a dynamic section. How many percent we get, is depending on how many whites there is on the bus, says a group of politically active black women.
- I knew someone had to take the first step, was one of Rosa Parks’ comments when we asked her to tell the story.

Thursday, December 1, Rosa Parks was on her way home after a long and hard day of ironing and stitching at the Montgomery Fair Department Store.
She stopped the right bus and went in. This bus would take her all the way home.
One seat in the so-called black section was free. “What a relief”, she thought. The bus started to ride, and it was stopping with fixed intervals. After a couple of minutes and stops, the bus was completely full and several people had to stand. Some of them were white. The bus driver didn’t notice the standing people so the bus just rolled away. After a while the bus came to a stop in front of the Empire Theatre. A new white passenger arrived, but he stopped in the aisle. The bus driver noticed that and he shouted that four of the black people near the white section had to give up their seats for the new passenger. No one stood up. All of them felt this situation very insulting. But the bus driver just repeated these insulting words.

Rosa Parks was one of the passengers that were sitting close to the white section. But she wasn’t going. She had earlier been discriminated by this bus driver.
She had some years ago tried to enter the bus by using the front door. That was illegal. The front door is reserved for the whites. Determined as she is, she had refused. But in fact – the driver was just obeying the law.

Some of them agreed

Three of the men who were sitting close to the white section, gave up after a few seconds. Just as the bus driver had commanded.
But the stubborn woman had more courage. She wouldn’t move.
- All of passengers were just looking at that stubborn black woman. We were all wondering what would happen next. The silence was scary. It was like an angel was flying through the bus, said one of the passengers at the white section.
The bus driver tried to tell her that she had to move. He also tried to scary her by saying that if she didn’t move, he had to arrest her for violating the law, but to no use.
- Stubborn as a donkey, was the comment from the bus driver.

The final solution

The bus driver, John F. Blake, finally understood that she wasn’t moving.
Therefore he got off the bus and came back with a police officer. The police officer arrested Rosa Parks for violating the law of segregation.
The only comment Rosa Parks gave, was the following:
– Why do you people push us around?
Today Rosa Parks is secured in Montgomery Police Department, or more exactly – she’s in jail.

Repercussions

A group of politically active black women’s are now planning a boycott against the City Line bus company. They are saying that they will not accept segregation at public buses. But the group won’t tell us anything about how they are going to accomplish this operation.

Ebony and Ivory

US are a melting pot with millions of immigrants. All of them come from different countries and they all have their own culture. The Statue of Liberty symbolizes a country where everyone can live, in freedom. But if the US is going to be a land where everyone can live in freedom, then we have to handle our immigrants with love and care. We cannot trudge them deep down in the mud, because they are different from us.

The incident at the bus is a bad example of the US as it is now. Black people do not have the same rights as us. Everyone knows. They cannot sit on the same benches as white people. And there are also separated schools.

The last is maybe the most important. If the next generation does not learn to live together, even thought they have different colors and cultures, they never will.
We can be more effective and more productive if we decide to use all of our people. Not as slaves, but as workers or company leaders.