Rosa Parks: “I had been pushed as far as I could stand”

[Warpy]

1. She'd been an activist for a very long time

before she sat in that front seat on that bus. The whole thing had been planned beforehand.

She and other activists had laid the foundation of what happened next, the bus strike.

The stupid law was eventually overturned, of course, after the bus system had lost enough money to start screaming in agony. They found out just how much the whole system relied on fares from the people they shoved to the back of the bus and denied seats to completely if it was rush hour and white folks wanted to sit down.

I lived in a southern city where black folks got to sit where they wanted to on the bus. Our big deal was lunch counters, where black folks could get served if they didn't mind trying to eat their food standing up on the sidewalk outside. They were prevented from sitting down.

Until they came in and sat.