60th anniversary of Rosa Parks arrest

The former secretary of state, who leads in the race for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, traveled to Alabama 60 years to the day after black seamstress Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, an event which changed the course of American history.

The next day, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the Rev. Ralph Abernathy and a host of other black ministers formed the Montgomery Improvement Association and called for a boycott of Montgomery’s public transit system. “It didn’t begin when I was arrested”, Parks is quoted as saying.

She said, “No!” in the face of the bully.

“We can’t go on like this”. She writes that the man – who she called “Mr. Charlie” – was let into the house by Sam, another African-American employee, and how Mr. Charlie got himself a drink, put his hands on her waist, and attempted to make a move on her. Rosa’s resolve to never consent to the man was strong, no matter the consequences.

President Obama on Tuesday marked the 60th anniversary of Rosa Parks’s famous bus boycott, a seminal moment in the Civil Rights movement.

“The fight for civil rights and the war for class equality has not ended because, like those American heroes who came before us, we shall not surrender”, said Devine. “We got here because people demanded their rights”.

Citing such issues as mass incarceration, voting rights and economic empowerment, Clinton said, “There are still too many ways in which our laws and our policies fall short of our ideals”.

Although Rosa Parks was not the first to refuse to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus her defiance ignited the matchstick in the powder barrel. Gray received a standing ovation when he referred to Clinton as the “next president of the United States”.

Crump has represented the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.

“As the mother of the new civil rights movement, she left an impact not just on the nation, but on the world”.

This was Clinton’s second visit to Alabama this election cycle. Bus rider Callie Greer says that buses are not a priority because they are used by people with low incomes, and according to a 2007 survey by the bus system, 84 percent of bus riders are black. Clinton spoke of stop and frisk, of systemic racism, of the bloated prison population, gun violence, missing black men. Bernie Sanders to match.

A week ago, Sanders visited two black baptist churches in North Charleston, South Carolina, where he acknowledged he was largely unknown among the parishioners.

Clinton, a practicing Methodist, seemed comfortable at the pulpit as she quoted Psalms – “This is the day the Lord has made”. The civil-rights movement of the 1950s, much like civil-rights movements today, was keenly aware of the power of public opinion.

Allytra Perryman works for the Mississippi Center for Justice as a community organizer, and is a member of the East Biloxi Collaborative.