United States heroes of Montgomery bus boycott recalled 60 years ago

Clinton spoke from the same pulpit at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church where King preached his Sunday sermons as pastor from 1954 to 1960. “It is fitting that we reserve a seat on all of our buses on the 60th anniversary of the day Parks refused to give up her seat”. In a 2010 book about mass incarceration, civil rights litigator Michelle Alexander characterized the US prison system as “the new Jim Crow”.

Sixty years later, engaging the next generation of leaders is crucial to the Montgomery Improvement Association, which was formed to orchestrate the bus boycott and continues to champion civil rights issues.

The 1950’s style bus allows people to experience what the environment was like back when Rosa Parks sat in protest.

US President Barack Obama applauding after the unveiling of the Rosa Parks statue in the US Capitol in Washington on February 27, 2013.

The famous Rosa Parks’ bus is central to “Day of Courage”, a celebration of the civil right activist’s 100th birthday at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Monday Feb. 4.

Fifteen bus routes crisscross the city, where tourist attractions herald Montgomery’s dual role as the birthplace of the Confederacy and the civil rights movement.

Armistead adds that Alabama will be an important state in next year’s primary as it will be the 5th state to hold a primary on March 1st.

Clinton also decried what she called efforts to erode the voting rights that minorities won decades ago.

On how she wanted to be remembered:I’d only like for [historians] to say that I was a person who believed in the freedom and equality for all people, regardless of their race and color, regardless of whatever their religious beliefs may be. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley – each pitch as they court black voters who will help choose a nominee.

In total solidarity for a year and a month, the Black citizens of Montgomery supported the King-led movement as they walked, carpooled, biked and found whatever means necessary to attend to their daily lives of work, school, church, community and social activities.

Asked whether Clinton, as a presidential candidate, should call for a legal change requiring local police departments to report deaths during confrontations with police, Crump told the Guardian: “Absolutely”.

“Like so many giants of her age, Rosa Parks is no longer with us”.

It gets worse. Just in case that rule wasn’t humiliating enough, there was another that required African American passengers to first board the bus at the front, so they could pay, and then step out and go to the back door to enter again.

King’s daughter, Bernice King, was in attendance at the event and gave the benediction.

Dr. Ducksworth Lawtwon said Parks was a lifelong civil rights activist, and she did what had to be done.