PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — With courage that could have cost Rosa Parks her life, in December 1955, she sat down and stood up to Jim Crow.
Her refusal to move to the rear of a bus ignited a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama that eventually paved the way for equality in public transportation.
“Our history is really important,” said Gayleen Kanoyton, Hampton NAACP president. “Black history is American history. Our young people need to know our history so they can carry it on.”
Sixty-nine years later, a Black man, William Harrell is president and CEO of Hampton Roads Regional Transit. He joined Kanoyton and other community leaders Monday for the unveiling of a Rosa Parks commemorative plaque at the Hampton Transit Center.
“Well, we’re very excited to host Transit Equity Day,” Harrell said. “People — the whole purpose is to recognize the importance that transit brings to people, to get them to work, to medical appointments, to school. So it’s important to recognize that everybody has an equitable day on public transit.
Gil Bland, president of the Urban League of Hampton Roads, joined the festivities.
“I was just privileged to have an opportunity to share a few words of importance about today and about Mrs. Parks,” Bland said. “What a privilege. I think one of the lessons to be taken away, in many ways, Ms. Parks would be viewed as an invisible person by today’s standards. She was not a media force or politician. She was the ordinary citizen who happened to do the right thing at the right moment, captured the attention of millions, and was a catalyst for change in the nation.
Sixty-nine years later, the National Urban League is taking on disparities that include digital racism, environmental racism, and extreme anti-Black racism. Civil rights leaders say the journey to equality remains long, and it includes persistent roadblocks.
“We have to continue that fight today, not only providing access to health care, public transportation, jobs and job training, and housing,” said Jimmy Gray, Hampton vice mayor. “There are many who are not in a position to take advantage of that. And so, until all people in our community can really enjoy the freedom of being able to have decent housing, health care, and so forth, and enjoy a good quality of life, we have to continue to fight.”