GRTC Celebrates Black History Month: Rosa Parks and Local History Makers Honored
In celebration of Black History Month, GRTC will pay special tribute to Rosa Parks on her birthday Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016. Parks was born on Feb. 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, AL. She passed away at the age of 92 on Oct. 24, 2005 in Detroit, MI, becoming the first woman in American history to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol.
Parks is most well-known for her act of defiance on a Montgomery, AL, bus on Dec. 1, 1955 that changed the course of history. On that date, Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. She was arrested and fined. Four days later, in response to Parks’ arrest, a year-long bus boycott began. It ended when the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public transportation was illegal.
Parks, the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,” will be honored by GRTC in a fitting tribute by reserving the first passenger seat on every GRTC bus on her birthday Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016. Each of these seats will have a commemorative sign displayed on them, honoring both Parks’ legacy and her dedication to the Civil Rights Movement. Operators will keep bus headlights on all day to represent her light, and the bus electronic header signs will rotate with a special message honoring Rosa Parks.
GRTC is also honoring local Black History-Makers each week during Black History Month. The following names will be displayed on bus destination header signs in February:
- First Week: “GRTC Honors Arthur Ashe”
- Second Week: “GRTC Honors Bill Bojangles Robinson”
- Third Week: “GRTC Honors Douglas Wilder”
- Fourth Week: “GRTC Honors Blair Underwood”
