WEBVTT - Rosa Parks: Agent of Change 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:02.960 Hey, everybody. We've already made our big tour announcement for 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:06.040 the year, but this is a little different because we 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:09.119 have added a show because Denver sold out, so we 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:11.560 have added a second show in Denver. Nice. Yeah, we're 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:15.120 going to be there on Wednesday. Then we added a 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:19.119 show the day before the same place, Gothic Theater, Englewood, Colorado. 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:21.639 And you can go to s Y s K live 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:24.360 dot com to get info and tickets for that show 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:27.400 and all the rest of our shows to Chuck. That's right, Boston, 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:32.040 April fourth, d C April five. St. Louis, Mayo and Cleveland, Ohio. 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:36.640 Come out and see us. Welcome to Stuff you Should 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:45.760 Know from how Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:49.320 to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.559 there's Jerry over there. So it's Stuff you should know 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:57.160 the podcast Clean Studio version. I know it feels a 0:00:57.160 --> 0:01:01.120 little weird in here, like, uh, like it's too good 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:03.800 for us or something, you know what I mean. Yeah, 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:07.039 just so you folks know, Jerry Test a couple of 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:10.720 the editor engineers here with coming in and cleaning up 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:14.400 the pile of spaghetti that used to flow from the 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:17.720 back of her workstation, not that it was Jerry's fault, 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:20.679 and she said, clean up my mess. Well, she clapped 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:27.560 twice in the whole. It looks good though, it does. 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:31.039 But now we actually have room to put stuff, so 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:34.319 we should put some stuff in here. I agree. It's 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:37.319 a little bear a papasan right, there would be nice. 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:40.800 I don't know. Well, we could put a small papason. 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:43.200 Most people don't realize. But this place is lousy with 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:46.760 Ikea lamps, I mean everywhere, and the cheapest ones, like 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:49.800 they're one of them is on fire right now? Yeah, 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:56.480 that one, Yeah, smoldering, smoldering, still fire, chuck, speaking of fire, Yes, 0:01:56.960 --> 0:01:59.440 you want to know somebody who had some fire in 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:06.120 her more than most people realize. Rosa Parks, who is 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:10.640 now one of my all time heroes because before the 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:13.160 Rosa Parks I knew again it was like the Harriets 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:17.120 Hubman episode. Learned about her in school. Um, she was 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.400 a great American, respect her, revere her. Here's why she 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:23.120 didn't give up her seat on the bus. No, like, 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:26.160 not only is that like just the tip of the iceberg. 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:32.160 It wasn't until about the last five or so years. 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:34.960 I think you know about the last four years, they're 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:37.680 like a full picture of this woman and who she was, 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:40.400 and like what she stood for and what drove her 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:42.919 emerged not just to the public in general, but to 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:47.400 two historians even because her personal papers were basically held 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:49.920 up in auction for years and years and years. And 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:53.240 now now that they've been donated for ten, like ten 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:55.600 years to the Library of Congress, we're starting to get 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:58.160 a clear picture of her, and she was even more 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:02.520 worth revering. And then people knew before. Yeah, I mean, 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:08.040 I think the what the story isn't uh is Rosa 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:10.680 Parks was just a quiet lady who was super tired 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:12.519 on the bus one day, so she didn't want to 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:15.800 get up. Her dogs were yapping. Yeah, not true. And 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.720 she even makes a point in her personal papers saying 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:22.680 I was forty two years old. Uh, I was no 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:24.840 more tired than I was after any day at work. 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:27.760 But what I was tired of was being told to 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:30.320 get up by a white bus driver to make room 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:34.480 for a white passenger that was not My dogs weren't barking, right, 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:38.560 so she um she I think one of the reasons 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:42.040 why she was kind of whittled down into this this 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:45.400 woman who was just tired and wasn't going to give 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:47.520 up her seat because she shouldn't have had two in 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:50.360 the first place. And then she was a very meek, 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:54.800 quiet person. Also is another way that she was drawn. Um. 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:57.760 I think one of the reasons why she was whittled 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:02.560 into that package was because she became an icon for 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:05.200 the civil rights movement. And one of the things that 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:07.520 the civil rights movement had to do, for better or worse, 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:11.240 was to get uh, the establishment, both white and black, 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:14.520 on the side of the civil rights movement, which was 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:19.480 a movement of agitation. Um. And if you agitated at 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:22.520 the time, this is the Jim Crow era that meant trouble. 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:25.600 This wasn't like just trouble like people are gonna yell 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:29.520 at you on Twitter. This was trouble like the cops 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:31.880 might arrest you for some made up in fraction and 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:34.200 then be and rape you on the way to the jail, 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:36.480 and then you would end up in the prison system 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.320 kind of trouble like. This is the kind of trouble 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:41.960 that a woman who refused to give up her seat 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:45.080 on the bus faced it at this time. Um. So, 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:48.640 the idea of taking a woman who was I guess 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:52.679 palatable to as many people as possible, and and saying, 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:56.040 look at this woman, we need to protect this woman's 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:59.120 rights and do what's right. Um. I think that's why 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:01.400 she got kind of wood old down into that. But 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:04.680 if you were looking back now historically she there's so 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:06.560 much more to her than than just that, and she 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:10.039 was certainly not meek and mild. Yeah, I mean, distilling 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:14.640 the story down for school books is uh is one thing, 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:16.800 but like I'm glad now that people can get a 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:19.640 more robust picture. Um. So a lot of this comes 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:23.480 from a website called Great Black Heroes dot Com had 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:26.520 a really good, lengthy article. Uh. And then also I 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:30.200 want to shout out a book series called Little People, 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:33.520 Big Dreams, And it's a kid's book series that we've 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:35.880 been reading to my daughter. In fact, it's kind of 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:37.920 all she wants to read right now. And they are 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:42.400 on great women in history and kind of brutally honest 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.640 for to be reading to kids. But they didn't. It's 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:49.599 kind of cool they weren't. They didn't whitewash anything. It's 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:55.040 sort of like, uh, Maya Angelo was not treated well 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:57.320 by white people, like you read that to your kid 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:00.960 and Rosa Parks this one, and then there's Free to Carlo, 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:05.159 Coco Chanel, Amelia Earhart, Mary Curie at Christie and more. 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:08.960 But um, but it's pretty brutal, like they draw Amelia 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:11.839 Hearts Skeleton on the Beach, kind of brutal. You know what. 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:14.440 That's the only one we haven't gotten to yet because 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:17.560 every night it's read free to Read, freed To But 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:20.400 it's literally like frieda Carlo is lying in the street 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:24.719 after she gets hit by a taxi and she's bloody 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:27.720 and her legs don't work again after. So, I mean, 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:29.680 it's pretty brutal stuff, But I don't know, it's kind 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:32.120 of cool, like kids can read the stuff and digest it. 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:35.280 I think it's a good way to begin them on 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:38.560 the path towards true stories and to sharpen them to 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:40.840 like a razor's edge at a young age, you know, 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:43.720 look out for taxis. Yeah, that's good. You know, that's 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:47.360 good advice at any age. All right, So Rosa Parks, Uh, 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.600 let's go back to where she was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:55.000 on February four, nineteen thirteen. Uh too. While she was 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:59.279 born Rosa Louise Macaulay to James and Leonora mcaulay, who 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:04.880 are a carpenter and school teacher respectively. Right, her parents split, 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:08.560 I guess she I don't know how old she was. 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:10.760 I guess she was younger than six, But her father 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:12.680 went to go look for work up north, and her 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:15.720 mom wanted to stay in the South, so she and 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:18.920 her mom and her brother moved in with her mother's parents, 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:24.200 her grandparents, and her grandfather played a really distinct role 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:26.560 in shaping her because she moved in with him when 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:29.320 she was, like I said, around six, and at the 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:33.920 time in this place Pine Level, which is outside of Montgomery, Alabama. Uh, 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:36.760 there was a lot of clan violence, a lot of 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:39.560 violence against blacks of the hands of the Ku Klux Klan, 0:07:40.280 --> 0:07:44.040 and Um, her grandfather was not having it. He was 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:48.320 actually he was the son of a slave woman and 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:52.120 slave owner, so he was um I believe half white. 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:56.160 Uh he was. He was a slave himself. He had 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:59.920 an owner UM at a young age who really brew 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:02.680 really mistreated him, trying to starve him for a little bit. 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:07.000 And her grandfather developed, um what she called, a very 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:11.000 intense passionate hatred for white people and definitely im part 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.560 of that to his daughters and his granddaughter grandchildren, wouldn't 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:17.240 let his grandchildren play with white kids, didn't let his 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:21.000 daughters work for white families. He was very much UM 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:24.920 and it sounds like pretty well founded against white people. 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:28.520 And definitely some of that rubbed off on Rose at 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:32.560 the very least her eyes were opened to just how 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:35.840 unjust the system was at the time when she was 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:39.200 growing up. Well, yeah, and just it wasn't even just 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.199 through his eyes. Like she went to a segregated school 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:44.640 that she had to walk to. White students were picked 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:48.040 up and bus to the school. Um. She went to 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:51.640 UH an elementary school called the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:56.360 very cool school. It was created by some UH northern 0:08:56.480 --> 0:09:02.800 white Northerners to basically UM try and foster education in 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:06.000 these more rural black communities in the South. And that 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:08.880 didn't go over well educating kids, so that school was 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:12.520 burned down twice. And then coupled that with all the 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:16.320 you know, influence from her grandfather, and it's no surprise 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:19.760 that Rosa Parks from a very very early age was 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:22.839 UH was an activist. So and being an activist, we're 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:28.960 talking like from age six onward, right, So she dropped 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:32.120 out of school, which would have been a huge turning point. Um. 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:33.800 She had to take care of her grandmother and then 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:36.000 I think her mom later on because they both fell ill. 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:41.560 And she met I think age seventeen or eighteen, and 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:45.520 then later on, at age nineteen, married her husband, Raymond Parks, 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:48.920 and he encouraged her to go back and finished school 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:51.520 and she did. It was a huge move because she 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:56.280 was very much meant to be an educated person. So UM, 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:58.760 the fact that she she met Raymond was a huge 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:02.280 influence in that respect. He was also a big influence 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:04.439 on her because she said that he was the first activist, 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:08.120 like real activist, that she ever met. And I believe 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:10.240 this was even before the n double a CP was 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:14.000 in town. This guy was like a grassroots activist. UH. 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:17.920 And he and his group were basically armed. Do you 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:20.960 remember in the Black Panthers episode where like the whole 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:24.280 idea of arming yourself came out of the South. Um. 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:26.640 So this guy was like Raymond Parks was one of 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:30.640 the the real deal people who originated that UM and 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:36.000 he and the group of activists that he um he 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:39.080 met with, UH would but they would all come to 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:42.360 the house and everyone to have a gun. UH. And 0:10:42.520 --> 0:10:45.079 apparently Rosa Parks said sometimes there were so many guns 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:46.880 on the table that she didn't have any place to 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:50.160 set the refreshments during these meetings. But these meetings weren't like, 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:52.960 you know, how are we going to get white people back? 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:54.400 It was how are we going to protect like the 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:58.679 Scottsboro Boys from false rape accusations? Um, he was he 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:03.720 was an early activists in Montgomery. Yeah, and later on 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:06.520 was a member of the Inn Double A CP. Uh. 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:08.520 We should do a show on the Scottsboro Boys at 0:11:08.559 --> 0:11:11.400 some point. Uh, it's too much to get into here, 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:15.360 but the short version is, um, a group of black 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:18.640 men on a train were accused of rape by two 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:22.840 white women who uh just made up the story. Basically 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:27.760 went to trial a few times, and UM, well you 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:30.520 know what, we'll save the outcome, okay, because they are 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:32.280 all kinds of outcomes because it went to trial so 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:36.160 many times. Um. So she did finish high school and 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:39.600 she became involved along with her husband in the Montgomery 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:42.200 chapter the in Double A CP and worked as their 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:47.160 secretary for fourteen years. So not only was she an activist, 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:52.480 but she was um involved in in service of these organizations, 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:54.800 like she worked for them, like whatever, you need done, 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:59.640 I will do. And anyone who's ever volunteered like knows that, UM, 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:02.520 I guess footch soldiers, for lack of a better term, 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:05.080 are some of the most important people to like in 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:08.160 the Black Panthers episode when you know, the women didn't 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:11.080 get nearly the recognition they should have gotten for just 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:14.400 keeping that organization running on time. So but she was 0:12:14.440 --> 0:12:18.080 more than a volunteer though. She had some really some 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:21.679 jobs with some real gravity. Like she was an investigator 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:27.480 of UM sexual assault of Black women by white men UM, 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:30.360 which is a very dangerous thing to do because you're 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:34.959 going to like interview witnesses to crimes that aren't being 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:38.840 prosecuted because they were perpetrated by white people. UM. She 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:43.600 uh was Justice for Prisoner advocate. She did a lot 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:47.760 of like really important stuff. And as she was doing 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:50.520 this stuff as the secretary for the local and WLE 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:53.520 and double a CP, she was also making contacts that 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:57.800 would later become really important in this nascent civil rights 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:02.120 movement that large grew out of the Montgomery bus boycott 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:04.079 we're going to talk about. I had no idea how 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:07.160 big of a an event it was, but I didn't 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:11.760 realize how far reaching the effects of it were oh yeah, uh. 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.000 And this another kind of important thing happened to her 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:19.080 as far as integration goes, is she got a job 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:22.679 type job at Maxwell Air Force Base for a little while, which, 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:27.160 because it was a federal institution, was integrated. And this 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:31.280 was the first time that she had um first time 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:34.400 she had worked in a basically been in a professional 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:39.120 integrated atmosphere. Uh. And that along with the Highlander Folk School, 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:42.400 which is maybe we should do a show on that too, uh. 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:45.440 In n she went to a meeting a workshop at 0:13:45.480 --> 0:13:47.320 the Highlander Folks School. And this is in the hills 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:50.200 of Tennessee. Uh. And it is still open today as 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:53.120 the Highlander Research and Education Center. Uh, not in that 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.320 original building, but um, it was just this great folk 0:13:56.360 --> 0:14:01.760 school where they prepared kids for activism. UM workers tried 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.720 to get people involved in civil rights and she actually 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:07.200 got sponsored by the white couple that she worked for, 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:11.120 uh to um go to these meetings at mont Egal, Tennessee. 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:14.400 So and that Maxwell Air Force Base you mentioned. One 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:16.600 of the things she later said, I think they found 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:19.960 in her papers was a description of like because it 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:22.560 was an integrated base, the bus service on base was 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:26.360 integrated as well, so she would be riding next to 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:30.360 like a white friend on the bus on base, and 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:32.080 then once they would get off of the bus on 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:34.040 base and get onto a city bus, they would have 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:36.480 to stop their conversation and get into the different sections, 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:39.560 the white section in the colored section. And that was 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:43.040 just the reality of it. Um. And one thing that 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:46.320 has really come through from her papers is that she 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:53.560 made a conscious decision to to never normalize that can 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:56.480 not be like, well, that's just how it is, that's 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:59.800 just life. That she would never let herself do that, 0:14:59.880 --> 0:15:02.720 and instead it was this is this is messed up. 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:05.920 This has to be changed. Um. She was able to 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:09.720 get through her day with this knowledge, but she was 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:12.160 never like this is normal or this is okay. Yeah, 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:14.080 I mean she said it required I think quote was 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:17.560 a lot of mental gymnastics just to survive day to 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:20.400 day as a black person in America. Uh So in 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.280 other words, yeah, not accept it and do everything I 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:25.600 can to wrap my head around what I can do 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:29.200 moving forward. Uh. Should we take a break? Yeah? Man, 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:31.560 all right, take a break and we'll come back and 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:57.640 we will um start on December one, very important day. Alright, 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:02.560 So it's December one, five Rosa Parks is working as 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.920 a seamstress at the time at a department store. She 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:08.280 gets off work like she does every day and boards 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:14.160 bus Cleveland Avenue bus at about six o'clock h And 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:17.800 here's the deal with the buses at the time, is uh, 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:19.720 there were a certain amount of rows set aside for 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:22.360 white people, and then there was a sign that said, 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:25.160 you know, black people were They probably said colored people 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:28.200 back then can sit from here back, but that sign 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:31.160 could move, so as more white people get on the bus, 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:34.440 the bus driver gets up and moves that sign back 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:36.760 and says, all right, black folks, you gotta get up, 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:39.240 get out of your seats because now the white section 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:42.600 is here, and just keep doing that until sensibly the 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.040 entire bus could be full of white people and they 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:47.480 just say, sorry, I'll have to get off. Right Yeah. 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:49.320 You either had to get up and move your seat. 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:51.560 If there were not seats left, you had to stand. 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:53.640 If there was no standing room, you had to get 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:56.880 off the bus right um. And then if the bus 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:59.960 you were getting on, if you were African American, if 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.160 the white section was already full, you had to get 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:05.240 into the front of the bus, pay, get off of 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:08.320 the bus and get onto that back door. You couldn't 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:10.800 even walk through the white section, right, and then you 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:14.480 you know, you could take your seat in the colored section. So, um, 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:17.840 there was a lot going on here. At least half 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:23.800 of this law was unwritten custom right. The local ordinance 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:27.040 in Montgomery, Alabama said that busses had to be segregated. 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:29.600 There was a white section and there was a colored section. 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:33.040 They put it right. All that stuff about moving the sign, 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:35.880 about getting up and like having to leave the bus 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:38.000 if there wasn't any standing room for you if more 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:41.000 white people came on, all of that was just customary. 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:43.920 That was not law, That was not the local ordinance, 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:47.600 but it was so practiced on a daily basis that 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:51.240 it might as well have been the law for sure. Um, 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:53.840 And that's really all that matters is if everyone was 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:57.080 playing ball, that's what was going to happen. Yeah, Because 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:00.119 like the courts would even prosecute as if you had 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.440 broken the law, if you had not actually broken the law, 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:06.400 but had broken this custom. So yeah, for all intensive purposes, 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:09.840 it was the law. So the driver of that bus 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:14.080 was one James Blake, and Rosa had uh, well, she 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:17.480 had a long memory and a previous incident with Mr 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:21.359 Blake twelve years previous, uh ninety three. She had paid 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:23.959 her fair and like you were talking about with um, 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:25.959 the fact that they couldn't even walk through the white section. 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:28.119 He said, you gotta get off the bus, go around 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:31.840 to the back. Uh forced her. Well, she had already 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:34.160 gotten and said no, you gotta re enter on the rear. 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.840 She got out and he was like psych, closed the 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:40.720 door and drove off with her bus fare. Right, Yeah, 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:44.520 she had already paid. Yeah that was and she remembered 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.840 twelve years later who James Blake was. I would probably 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:50.960 not forget that bus driver. So on on this day 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:54.840 she got on and um, she took her seat in 0:18:55.000 --> 0:19:00.080 the colored section and when she sat down a in 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:04.520 she was behind the sign. And I guess after a 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:07.280 couple of stops, and think about this man ament riding 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:10.320 the bus and say you have like seven stops, think 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:12.159 about that pit that would be in your stomach on 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:14.159 a daily basis, Like, am I gonna have to get up? 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:16.720 I'm gonna have to be humiliated? I am I gonna 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:18.240 have to give up my seat to a white person? 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:21.840 Because even if somebody who was told that they had 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:24.080 to get up because a white person needed to sit there, 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:27.919 even if they just kind of quietly complied that that 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:31.400 doesn't that doesn't get the point across how they were feeling. Right, 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:35.240 then anybody would be humiliated by that. And I read 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:37.960 that one of the reasons why busses, not just in Montgomery, 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:41.399 but throughout the segregated South, they were kind of flash 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:44.919 points because they were people were in such close quarters. 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:47.119 It was the racism was right up in your face 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:49.480 in front of a bunch of other people, so the 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:53.800 humiliation was even more pronounced. Right. So, so Rosa Park 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:56.040 gets on the bus. She takes her seat in the 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:59.920 colored section, and after a few stops, some white people 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:04.560 got on and the the driver, James blake Um, said 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:06.920 that it was time for them to move, that these 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:09.840 white people needed a seat, and uh he was moving 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:14.639 the sign back at least one row. Yeah. So at 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:18.440 this point, Um, there's one white dude left without a seat. 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:22.639 Uh So, as his custom, he made four black folks 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:25.560 get out of their two seats on that row. Everyone 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:26.879 had to move back because there had to be a 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.720 whole new white road just for this one guy. Three 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:32.720 of the passengers got up been moved. Rosa Parks just 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:35.840 slid over to the window seat and sat there and 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:37.800 he said, are you going to get up? And she 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:40.320 said no, I'm not. He said, well, if you don't 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:42.480 stand up, I'm gonna have to call the police and 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:46.400 have you arrested. And she said you may do that. Aw, 0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:49.600 I don't know, man, I mean, just so brave. And 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.560 so the police did come. She was arrested, She was booked, 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:59.200 charged with the disorderly conduct, and bailed out by Clifford 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:02.879 der and Edgar Nixon, who were the local president of 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:05.239 the the chapter of the Double A c P at 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:09.200 the time. Right, So, um, she's out at least temporarily. Yeah, 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:11.159 the next evening, so she spent the night in jail. 0:21:12.000 --> 0:21:15.399 I don't I didn't run across any any statements or 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:19.520 any kind of evidence that she was like physically mistreated 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:23.560 or verbally abused by the police. Um, but that that 0:21:23.760 --> 0:21:26.919 seems to be unusual for people who were arrested for 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:29.480 not giving up their seats on the bus. That she 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:33.000 was not mistreated. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure they didn't 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:37.959 throwout the welcome at No. You no, but um, there's 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:40.560 this is actually this is no worthy here. Do you 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:42.320 want to talk about how she was not the first 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:46.080 person that year, not the first woman to have been 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:49.240 arrested for not giving up her seat on the bus. Yeah. Sure, 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:51.280 this is something I didn't realize, and I think a 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:53.480 lot of people didn't realize this. But there were at 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:57.719 least two other women in Montgomery who were arrested that 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:02.320 same year. One was Claudette Colvin. She was fifteen at 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:07.199 the time. She got pregnant afterwards. Um, but she was 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:13.080 fifteen and uh, she in March was arrested for not 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:16.800 giving up her seat on the bus. Um. She said 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:18.960 at the time she was scared to death. But she 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:21.479 felt on one side, so journal Truth was holding her 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:24.159 down and on the other side, Harriet Tubman was holding 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:25.880 her down and she was not about to get up. 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:28.880 So they took her off the bus and arrested her. 0:22:28.880 --> 0:22:33.600 And um, apparently she was ridiculed and treated rather roughly. Um. 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:36.480 There was another woman. Her name was Mary Louise Smith. 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:38.479 I believe she was eighteen at the time. She had 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:42.040 been arrested, like uh in October, um for the same thing. 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:45.520