A very brave woman started something big.

Not surprisingly, segregated city buses weren’t Mrs. Parks’ only experience with unequal transportation. During her school years in Pine Level, Alabama, white students were provided with school buses while black children were forced to walk.

“The bus,” she said in an interview, “was among the first ways I realized there was a black world and a white world.”

Certainly, there are remnants of this separation today (including on the bus*), but I am so grateful that Mrs. Parks (and many, many others) sacrificed their livelihoods and personal safety so that I could take for granted my right to ride.

The new Rosa Parks Transit Center, as seen from the Detroit People Mover (photo courtesy of My Gail‘s husband, Hodge)

“Memories of our lives, our works and our deeds, live on in others.” – Rosa Parks

RIP, Original Bus Chick. Much respect.

*I just read an interesting (if not particularly recent) article about the state of Montgomery transit (and equality) at the Millennium. (via: Streetsblog Network)