The Milwaukee County Transit System honors Rosa Parks's legacy 63 years after her arrest with open seat, red rose on every city bus

Rosa Parks being fingerprinted after her refusal to move to the back of a bus to accommodate a white passenger in 1955. (Photo: Underwood Archives/Getty Images)
Rosa Parks being fingerprinted after her refusal to move to the back of a bus to accommodate a white passenger in 1955. (Photo: Underwood Archives/Getty Images)

Sixty-three years after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white man in Montgomery, Ala., the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) left an open seat and a red rose on each of its city buses to honor her legacy.

Parks’s act of civil disobedience in 1955 helped spark the Montgomery Bus Boycott and earned her the nicknames “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement” from the U.S. Congress.

The selected seat on each bus, which remained empty from Friday to Sunday in her memory, featured a sign that read: “This seat is reserved in honor of Rosa Parks. On the anniversary of her courageous act, MCTS salutes Rosa Parks, whose quiet strength made a seat available for everyone.” This is the second year MCTS has paid tribute to Parks.

The seamstress and secretary for the local chapter of the NAACP was arrested on Dec. 1, 1955. Her resistance, followed by the yearlong boycott led by Martin Luther King Jr., resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregated seating laws were unconstitutional. According to police reports, Parks was charged with “refusing to obey orders of bus driver,” despite sitting behind the 10 seats reserved for white passengers.

“Now, more than ever, Rosa Parks’ courage and beliefs should inspire us every day,” Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele said in a statement. “This country was changed for the better on that December day when she refused to give into racism and oppression. While we can never truly thank her for her brave actions, we mark the occasion to remember and honor her bravery and convictions.”

The seats’ signs also featured one of Parks’s most famous quotes, highlighting her modesty. It read, “My only concern was to get home after a hard day’s work.”

Rosa Parks died in 2005. She was 92 years old.

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