3 things I didn’t know about Rosa Parks…

First, yes, I’m sitting in the exact seat Rosa Parks sat in that launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which happened 69 years ago today. 

Ok, here are three things I learned that I didn’t know.

1. The iconic picture of Parks you’ve seen in mass media does not show the seat where the protest started. The picture you’ve seen shows a year after the boycott. 

2. Rosa Parks did not sit in the front of the bus but in the upper middle section where whites and blacks could sit. However, when a white person entered the bus, if someone of color was sitting in one of those seats, they had to get up and go to the “blacks only” section in the back of the bus. Instead of getting up to move to the back, Rosa Parks slid over to the window in defiance of this foolish policy. 

3. Rosa Parks was not the first person who refused to give up her seat; a 15-year-old named Claudette Colvin was. She did this nine months before Rosa Parks made her mark on history. Why did one moment take off, and the other was forgotten? The thought was that it was easier for people to rally behind a 42-year-old woman than a teen. 

It was an honor and privilege to get a private tour of the bus and reflect on her extraordinary legacy.