GRTC honors Rosa Parks

On the anniversary of an historic Civil Rights movement, Greater Richmond Transit Co. (GRTC) will pay special tribute to Rosa Parks on Friday, Dec.1.

Parks is most well-known for her act of defiance on a Montgomery, Ala. bus on December 1, 1955 that changed the course of history. On that date, Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. She was arrested and fined. Four days later, in response to Parks’ arrest, a year-long bus boycott began. It ended when the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public transportation was illegal.

Parks, the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,” will be honored by GRTC in a fitting tribute by reserving the first passenger seat on every GRTC bus on the anniversary, Friday, Dec. 1, 2017. Each of these seats will have a commemorative sign displayed on them, honoring both Parks’ legacy and her dedication to the Civil Rights Movement. Operators will keep bus headlights on all day to represent her light, and the bus electronic header signs will rotate with a special message honoring Rosa Parks.

Parks was born on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Ala. She passed away at the age of 92 on Oct. 24, 2005 in Detroit, becoming the first woman in American history to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol.