Aboard the Rosa Parks Express

by Paul Bass | December 1, 2005 10:43 AM | | Comments (2)

Ezekiel Barfield (in photo) doesn’t usually ride a city bus; he drives to work in Bridgeport. But he joined dozens of CT Transit riders Thursday morning to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the day seamstress Rosa Parks sparked a seminal chapter in U.S. civil rights history by refusing to relinquish her seat in the white section of a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. If Parks were alive today and living in New Haven, would she ride a city bus?

“She’d probably have someone chauffeur her,” suggested one of a bevy of a ministers on the morning bus ride from Union Temple Freewill Baptist Church on Platt Street to a spirited City Hall rally.

“On the second hand, where she’d probably be working today, there probably would be no public transportation.”

“She probably wouldn’t be able to afford to ride the bus,” chimed in Mayor John DeStefano, noting that the state has raised bus fares 25 percent over the past three years.

The Rev. Emilio Hernandez settled the question for the crowd that gathered outside City Hall to honor Parks’ memory.

“I think she would be driving the bus!” Hernandez said. It’s not enough to sit in front of the bus, literally, or metaphorically, he continued; people need to occupy the driver’s seat and steer the course of society toward social justice. “The day we say it’s enough is the day we forget about Rosa Parks.”

Toward that end, Dottie Green (in photo) exhorted the crowd to join her in launching a new civil-rights campaign in Parks’ memory. Green, principal of a prison school in Cheshire and an active member of Temple Freewill Baptist Church, organized Thursday’s “Ride the Bus Dec. 1” event. She invited people back to the church after the rally and the ride to discuss a longer-range activist campaign. (To find out more, and get involved, contact her by e-mail. The Rosa Parks Express has miles more to travel.

The Rosa Park Express riders Thursday included, from left, Shahid Abdul-Karim and Imam Abdul Hasan from the Muhammad Islamic Center.

Josie Woods rides the bus all the time, not just this Thursday morning. She takes CT Transit from her home on Shelton Avenue in Hamden to downtown New Haven shops, to the mall in Milford, and to Wal-Mart on Route 80.








Comments

Posted by: Lou West | December 3, 2005 7:50 PM

I commend Ms. Green and her friends for the thought of honoring Ms. Rosa Parks. However, the Bus Boycott was not about being able to ride the bus, but riding with dignity as an American citizen and a paying customer. For the mis- informed, the Black African Americans of Selma,including the SCLC, Drs. Schuttleworth and King, Rosa Parks and many others decided to boycott that particular bus line by walking, car pooling, riding taxis, riding bikes, through all kinds of weather, to church, school, jobs, shopping, medical appointments/emergencies, etc. until Social Injustice for Black Americans were addressed. The Bus Boycott was International News, however, the bus line headquarters was in Chicago with another bus line in St. Louis. If my research is correct, then we shold have boycotted the whole company! Black folk should be riding buses the Black African Americans own, then we can say thank you Rosa Parks and to all those folk who suffered and are suffering in the movement. The Klan and their kin are still here wearing suits and ties instead of hoods!

Posted by: B | December 5, 2005 8:16 AM

New Haven's buses are owned by the State. Whether your black,white blue or green, if you pay taxes your an investor in the company....congratulations!

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