A forensic document examiner was hired to see if the scrapbook was authentic. A Museum conservator went to Montgomery to personally examine the bus. Convinced that this was the Rosa Parks bus, we decided to bid on the bus in the Internet auction. The bidding began at $50,000 on October 25, 2001, and went until 2:00 AM the next morning. It’s the story of the Rosa Parks bus—bus number 2857. The story of how the bus got from a factory in Pontiac, Michigan, to the streets of Montgomery, Alabama, to a mechanic’s field outside of Montgomery, and finally to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, has some surprising twists and turns. DEARBORN, MI - JANUARY 31: The newly restored Montgomery, Alabama bus where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man, is rolled out to its permanent display January 31, 2003 at the – The bus on which Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat is a symbol of her defiance that changed the course of history in America. That bus was once in ruins, but now it sits at the Henry Ford Historic markers designate the site where Rosa Parks boarded the public bus and where she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger and move to the back. The Rosa Parks Museum, located at the site of Parks’ famous arrest, is centered on Parks’ story and its place in the Civil Rights Movement and features a restored Montgomery bus station manager Charles H. Cummings had maintained a scrapbook of newspaper articles during the 1955–56 Montgomery bus boycott. Next to articles describing the arrest of Rosa Parks, he wrote "#2857" and "Blake/#2857." James Blake was the bus driver who had Rosa Parks arrested. The "smoking gun" - the page of Charles Cummings' scrapbook page with the notation "Blake/#2857," indicating the driver and number of the bus. How the bus was acquired is a more modern story. In September 2001, an article in the Wall Street Journal announced that the Rosa Parks bus would be available in an Internet auction in October. On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on this bus and was arrested for violating segregation law. Her arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted for 381 days until segregation on public buses was repealed. Parks’ stance and the boycott were important events that raised awareness for the civil rights movement. Inside this bus on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a soft-spoken African-American seamstress, refused to give up her seat to a white man, challenging existing segregation laws. Many believe Rosa Parks' act was the event that sparked the civil rights movement. On this evening, Rosa Parks was seated in the middle area of the bus. Four white passengers boarded the bus and as it was full on this occasion, four coloured passengers from this section, Rosa included were asked to move. Three coloured passenegers vacated their seats. Rosa did not. She had had enough of the ‘separate but equal’ idea. The National City Lines bus, No. 2857, on which Rosa Parks rode before she was arrested (a GM "old-look" transit bus, serial number 1132), is now on exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum. On the night of Parks' arrest, the Women's Political Council , led by Jo Ann Robinson , printed and circulated a flyer throughout Montgomery's black community that Throughout the week, Laketran and Geauga Transit will block off the first seat on each bus in honor of Rosa Parks. The reserved seats will feature a picture of Parks to highlight her courage and Rosa Parks (1913—2005) helped initiate the civil rights movement in the United States when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955. Her actions Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American activist in the civil rights movement, best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. Rosa Parks' Bus . In 1955, African Americans were still required by a Montgomery, Alabama, city ordinance to sit in the back half of city buses and to yield their seats to white riders if the The Montgomery city bus aboard which Rosa Parks defied segregation sat as a rusted storage shed before The Henry Ford acquired it in 2001. Today, the fully restored bus in Henry Ford Museum stands as an inspiring reminder of her courageous activism. The picture posted is not the actual sight (sculpture) it's where she got on the bus (site slightly over). However it was interesting and humbling to stand in the location that she got on the bus and ironically the same area in which slaves were sold and then to look down just a very short distance and see the location in which Mrs. Parks was arrested. A Laketran rider sitting next to the seat marked reserved in honor of Rosa Parks. Throughout the week of Feb. 3, 2025, the first seat on Laketran and Geauga Transit buses will be reserved for a tribute commemorating Parks' commitment to public transit equity, and impact on the modern Civil Rights Movement. Inside this bus on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a soft-spoken African-American seamstress, refused to give up her seat to a white man, breaking existing segregation laws. The flawless character and quiet strength she exhibited successfully ignited action in others. Rosa Parks (born February 4, 1913, Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S.—died October 24, 2005, Detroit, Michigan) was an American civil rights activist whose refusal to relinquish her seat on a public bus precipitated the 1955–56 Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, which became the spark that ignited the civil rights movement in the United States.
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