Dallas honors Rosa Parks with reserved bus seats

Dallas Area Rapid Transit would like bus riders in the city to know that Tuesday, it’s going to be very hard to get the front seat on any city buses—those seats are reserved for Rosa Parks.

Sixty years ago today, Rosa Parks took a seat for what she believes in, refusing to give up her spot on a Montgomery, AL, bus to a white passenger, violating state law. She was arrested and her act of civil disobedience lead to a year-long bus boycott in the city, and a landmark 1956 Supreme Court ruling that outlawed segregation on public transportation.

To commemorate Parks’ bravery, DART is placing a sign in the front seat of all its buses. The sign features an image of a statue of Rosa Parks that stands in a Dallas plaza (which has a bus top, naturally) bearing her name and the words, “Reserved in Honor of Rosa Parks.”

“We cannot overstate the significance of her simple and brave act,” DART President and Executive Director Gary Thomas told the Dallas Morning News. “Her decisions to keep her seat reminds us all to focus on the larger issues of equality, opportunity and hope for the future.”

DART announced at the press conference commemorating Parks that two new plaques will soon be placed at Parks’ namesake plaza. “Her actions created millions of opportunities for transit users in the heart of Texas who rely on DART to get to work, to get to school and to create the lives they want,” Faye Moses Wilkins, chairwoman of DART’s board of directors, said.

David Matthews operates the Wayback Machine on Fusion.net—hop on. Got a tip? Email him: [email protected]