The notion seems ludicrous nearly 70 years later, but there was once a law in Alabama that African Americans had to sit in the back half of the bus, and they had to give up their seat to whites if the white section was full.
That all changed December 20, 1956 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the law was unconstitutional.
The ruling came more than a year after African Americans began the Montgomery bus boycott, one of the first large civil rights events in the U.S. The boycott began December 5, 1955 after Rosa Parks was arrested and fined $14 for not giving up her seat to a white rider.
More than 75 percent of the riders were African American, but the city would not change the law. The African American community organized carpools or people just walked.
“We came to see that, in the long run, it is more honorable to walk in dignity than ride in humiliation. So … we decided to substitute tired feet for tired souls, and walk the streets of Montgomery,” Martin Luther King, said.
The Montgomery bus boycott wasn’t the first. African Americans boycotted the buses in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1953. The boycott lasted eight days before the city and boycotters reached an agreement that only the first two rows in front and in back were racially reserved seating.
Several songs were written about Parks, who became a symbol of the civil rights movement. Our Song of the Day, “Sister Rosa,” was recorded by the Neville Brothers in 1989.
Cyril Neville and Daryl Johnson wrote it. The lyrics tell the story of Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott. The song reached number 75 on what was then known as the black singles chart.
Song of the Day is created by Sheldon Zoldan, and produced by Pam James for WGCU. To receive the Song of the Day in your inbox every day, email shzoldan@comcast.net with the subject line ADD ME TO SOTD.
