National Celebrations for 50th Anniversary of Bus Boycott Continue
Celebrations are continuing throughout the city of Montgomery for the 50th anniversary of the Rosa Parks arrest and the historic bus boycott that triggered the modern civil rights movement.
Celebrations are continuing throughout the city of Montgomery for the 50th anniversary of the Rosa Parks arrest and the historic bus boycott that many say triggered the modern civil rights movement.
Anniversary events began on Dec. 1 to commemorate the late Parks and her bold act. In 1955, Parks had refused to relinquish her bus seat for a white passenger. Her arrest led to a 381-day protest involving some 40,000 blacks who challenged racial segregation. Half a century later, United States government officials, church leaders and thousands of people from the grassroots level are honoring the day that brought attention to the voice of many more African Americans.
A racially diverse group of thousands of youths kicked off the week-long anniversary celebration with an eight-block march to the Alabama state Capitol that began from the Rosa Parks Museum – the site where Parks was arrested. The Montgomery Children's Walk was a "huge success," according to organizers of the Montgomery Children's Walk, as it was planned to encourage the youth generation to take forward action in bringing about positive social change.
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Anniversary organizers from the Montgomery Improvement Association, said Park's death on Oct. 24 underscores the need for a new generation of leaders to continue the fight for civil rights, according to FOX 23 News.
"A lot of our young people don't know about our past and having celebrations like this helps to get out young people involved and learn about the struggles that their foreparents had," said R.D. Harris, principal of Meridian High School, according to WTOK.
Civil rights activist Juanita Abernathy, whose late husband, the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, helped the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. lead the Montgomery bus boycott, spoke at First Baptist Church in Montgomery along with the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King the Third to mark the 50th anniversary.
On that day, President George Bush also signed legislation to place a statue of the civil rights mother, Rosa Parks, in the Capitol. The routine bill signing was made into a high-profile White House ceremony that brought together African-American officials in the Bush administration including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and veterans of the civil rights movement as well as Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.
A Smithsonian Institution exhibit featuring "381 Days: The Montgomery Bus Boycott Story" opened on Friday at the state Capitol and will run through Jan. 14 before taking on a 14-city national tour through 2009. Anniversary events will continue throughout the week with a Montgomery Bus Boycott Mass Meeting scheduled for today at First Baptist Church and a Civil Rights Conference slated for Dec. 8-9 at Alabama State University.
