ROSA PARKS , 1956-ca. Box 18 Folder 10 Writings, notes, and statements Drafts of early writings 1956 ca 1958 undated Accounts of her arrest and the subsequent boycott, as well as general Reflections on Race Relations in the South (2 of 2) ESTABLISHED 1868 Montgomery Fair COMPANY 22 N. COURT ST. - 29 DEXTER AVE. - 24-32 MONROE ST. Montgomery 4, Ala. [Dear Friend:] Daily - Newspapers. black Star Edition colored news separate [?]. Reason white readers would resent reading the title Miss and Mrs. preceding colored women's names. City Bus lines. Front section reserved for white passengers Wash Pk. predominantly Negro, seating space for 10 persons left vacant for white people whether or not they board the bus enroute to town. The bus driver often passes Colored passengers, with these empty seats, when he thinks enough are standing in the aisle. This means a larger number will be waiting for the next bus. 2. The next bus driver may also not stop for Colored passengers. Sometimes, Colored passengers have to pay their fare at the front of the bus, and then go to the rear door for entrance, which is already overcrowded. [It There are] [many ways] It is not uncommon for a bus driver to order a Colored woman to vacate a seat for a white man to be seated in the same space. Such practises and [?] many other unjust things are regular routine. On reaching my job, which [is] at Montg's largest Dept. Store, Montgy Fairs, there are the drinking fountains throughout the store, plainly marked, White Only - on one and Colored on the other. The women employee rest room is 3. ESTABLISHED 1868 Montgomery Fair COMPANY 22 N. COURT ST. - 29 DEXTER AVE. - 24-32 MONROE ST. Montgomery 4, Ala. is for white. The ladies lounge for public is known to be for white only without the sign. The white + colored women employees and [public] colored women shoppers use the same lounge. [(Women, there is none for men)]. The Colored women employees and colored women shoppers [public] use the same lounge ([Women, there is none for men]). The Colored women employees eat their lunch in a little room next to the rest room. The door between the toilet and dining area can not be closed tightly enough to stay shut. There is a luncheonette counter where some Colored help is employed as cook, dishwasher etc, but [no] Colored people are not served at the counter. They may buy the food and take it away to eat it. 4 Colored people are employed [?] at this store as maids, porters, elevator operators, truck drivers, except that I work in the tailor shop doing men's clothing alterations as a helper of the tailor, who is Colored. One Colored man is the window dresser. I don't know what else he does. There is a large number of Negroes shopping in this store most of the time. This thing called segregation here is a complete and solid pattern as a way of life. We are conditioned to it and make the best of a bad situation. At the Public Library, located near the downtown shopping section, a Colored person will not be permitted to come in and read a book or be given 5 ESTABLISHED 1868 Montgomery Fair COMPANY 22 N. COURT ST. - 29 DEXTER AVE. - 24-32 MONROE ST. Montgomery 4, Ala. one to take out. The requested book will be sent to the Colored branch library, on the east side of town, if it is not already available there. Last year, some NAACP Youth Council members who are students went to this downtown library for reference books to use in school. They were told the books were there but they would be sent to the branch library to be issued to them there, even though these young people lived on the west side of town. So you see, my dear, it is something that seems 6. endless. I could go on and on and there would still be some more to tell. The schools are all segregated and of course unequal. The churches are also segregated. White people sometimes visit the Colored churches, but I don't know if any Colored people go to white churches, except as nurses to look after small children. I don't know of any going as guests. I don't know how helpful this is to you, but I hope it may enlighten you a little about the way of life in the South. You may write again and let me know of something 7 ESTABLISHED 1868 Montgomery Fair COMPANY 22 N. COURT ST. 29 DEXTER AVE. 24-32 MONROE ST. Montgomery 4, Ala. in particular that you want to do research work on. Employment, housing, voting, education and social aspects are all fertile fields for research based on racial discrimination. [I will close for now.] I am sure you read of the lynch- murder of young Emmett Till of Chicago. This case could be multiplied many times in the South, not only Miss, but Ala, Georgia, Fla. [?] In my lifetime, I have known Negroes who were killed by whites without any arrests or investigations and with little or no publicity. It is the custom to keep such things covered up in order not to disturb what is called 1. Some common practices of Montg'y City Lines bus drivers toward Negro passengers before the protest began on Dec 5, 1955: In accordance with the racial segregation law, whites occupy the front of the bus. Negroes the rear. There were always reserved seats for white passengers, even if [they] they never boarded a bus. At least space for 10 persons. This practice forced Negroes to stand [ove] while seats were empty. Drivers would also pass Negroes without picking them up, with front section empty. When the rear of the bus was filled, many times he required Negro passengers to give him the fare at the front door, and go to the rear to get in the bus, no matter how [crowed] crowded it would be. There were times that he would drive away and leave the passenger if too much time was taken in getting on. Negroes were, by far, the majority of bus riders on almost all routes, [as they] many worked in all the white residential areas, and students attending school used bus transportation. 350 3 ______________ 10.50 -Eye Eye Do you go with Dates - Stride Toward Freedom Jan. 1954 - Rev Kings first trip to Montg'y to preach at Dexter Ave Bapt. Church Jan 7, 1861, Ala voted to secede from the Union Feb 18, Jefferson Davis took his oath of office as Pres of the Confederate States. Montgomery became the Cradle of the Confederacy. Sept. 1, 1954 - He became full time pastor of Dexter. Dec, 1, arrest, Dec. 5, trial of R. Parks (Jan. 7, R. Parks dismissed from job) Jan. 22, erroneous press release by city that protest ended after conference with 3 "promenent" negro ministers. Jan. 30 Rev. King's house bombed. Jan 24, Mr. Nixon's bombing - Feb 13, Grand Jury called for indictment of protesters. Feb 22, arrest began of indicted. March 19, Rev. King's trial began. Guilty verdict rendered by Judge Eugene Carter - March 22. 3-judge Federal Court hearing for desegregation of buses May 11, 1956. - June 4-56 decision to desegregate 2 to 1. [Legl] Legal action against the car pool Oct. 30, 1956 - [Trial] hearing set for Nov 13. - same date U.S. District Court ruled against segregation on buses. Bus integregation order reached Montgy Dec 20. Dec. 21 put in action. Jan 10, 1957, Bombing of 4 churches and 2 homes. Jan. 28, Bombing of People's Ser. Sta. and home of Allen Robertson. Jan. 31, Seven white men arrested for bombing. 5 indicted - 2 dismissed Found not guilty even with signed confessions. 1. In Montgomery, Ala, the Cradle of the Confederacy, Heart of Dixie there exist some strange and varied customs of racial segregation and Jim Crow laws. There is much evidence everywhere of integration being practiced between the races some where and sometimes for a long, long time. Night time integration and day time segregation makes this a very mixed up place. It is not easy to remain rational and normal mentally in such a setting where even in our air port in Montgomery, there is a white waiting room, none for colored except an unmarked seat in the entrance. It doesn't say who should take this seat. There are rest room facilities for white ladies and colored women, white men and colored men. We stand outside after being served at the same ticket counter instead of sitting on the inside. Also there is only one drinking fountain. We board the plane and find no segregation. On arrival in B'ham, we note one waiting room, but white and colored drinking fountains. I did not go down stairs to the rest rooms. Neither am I very thirsty during this brief wait of about one hour. This time gives me a little while to go back in my mind to my home in Montgomery and its unique position today. Where segregation was the order of the day, way of life and accepted pattern apparently [ac] taken for granted by all with the exception of a few persons who were called [many] [th] radicals, sore heads, agitators, trouble makers, to name just a few terms given them. The masses seemed not to put forth too much effort to struggle against the status quo. 2. With the wall artificial segregation between the races, the white man formed in his own [wh] mind what he thought was what the Negro should have, which is an inferior status in life, second class citizenship, restricted action as a human being. He worked very hard to educate the Negro into believing that he is happier segregated, discriminated against, mistreated and humiliated. Such a good job of "brain washing" was done on the Negro, that [for] a militant Negro was almost a freak of nature to them, many times ridiculed by others of his own group. The schools in the south were the best training ground for teaching Negro inferiority and white supremacy. A young child starting to school could very soon learn that the white children went to beautiful well appointed and equipped school buildings, while Negro children went to roughly built, uncomfortable shacks, with no desks, but rough plank benches. The white rode buses, the Negro walked long weary miles in all kinds of [th] weather, cold, wind and rain, as well as the scortching heat of summer. In my own early school days, our term was 5 months, the white 9 months, in the rural community. It was very rare indeed for a young Negro to look 2 forward to finishing his education a entering a well paying profession. The teachers were poorly prepared as well as under paid. There were very few Negro businesses, only some weak and often shady insurance [comp] and burial companies. Undertaking establishments some grocery stores, resturants and cafes. Montgomery situation - on city bus lines before arrest of R. Parks. Practice of segregation in force. No white + Negro passengers could [sit in] occupy the same seat or sit across from each other. Negroes could not sit in front of white persons, leaving vacant seats in front of buses on all routes, enough to accomodate at least 10 persons on predominantly Negro routes. The bus drivers would take fares from passengers in the front door and have them enter the rear door if he did not want them to stand too near the front over these "reserved seats." Very often they passed waiting passengers without stopping [to pick them], if the rear of the bus was filled, making many workers late for their jobs. Some drivers refused to make change for passengers to pay fares. They were often rude and discourteous in speaking to Negro passengers. [These and] and [many other] This was the general pattern of segregation on the city busses. Some recent incidents: March 2, 1955 a 15 year old high school student, Claudette Colvin, was arrested, hand cuffed and ALABAMA SIGHT CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION, INC. 619 SOUTH 19TH STREET BIRMINGHAM 3, ALABAMA TEL.: 3-3963 Mr. R. A. Parks May 17, 1956 634 Cleveland Court Montgomery, Alabama Dear Mr. Parks: We feel sure that you and most of us in Alabama are glad there is active service going on here for the benefit of those who need eye care bu can't pay. This association serves any and all regardless of race or creed. Recently we wrote to you and invited a donation to help provide eye care, operations, special eyeglasses, treatments and other services needed to restore or conserve vision. A contribution book and a stamped envelope were enclosed with our letter and we will appreciate it very much if you will return the book so we can use it again. We hope very much you can see your way clear to include your own contributions, whatever the amount. Sincerely, [signature] J. Carl Hall Chairman Contribution Committee JCH: I 2. jailed for refusing to give up a seat almost to the rear of the bus. She was found guilty of disorderly conduct and assault and battery. [?] The segregation charge was dismissed in order not to make a test case against the [segregation] transportation segregation law in Ala. She is now on probation. Later in March, a veteran of World War II and recent patient of the Tuskegee Veteran's hospital, was badly beaten on the head by a bus driver. The driver, a 254 lb man, used [?] his metal transfer punch to attack this helpless [?] young man, who was standing in the street, not riding the bus. In Recorder's Court, the driver was fined $25.00. He continued to drive on the same route. In Oct. another young girl was arrested, jailed and fined for refusing to give up her seat on a bus. She paid the fine. Man has used this tradition to perpetuate the myth of white supremacy and [blacks] to [deprive] instill in the black man [of self-respect] an inferiority complex. Mrs. Walker 5-7 675 N.A.A.C.P. 20 West 40th Street New York 18, N.Y. Mrs. Rosa Parks A 634 Cleveland Courts Montgomery, ALA. New York N.Y. FEB 15'56 P.B. Meter 323663 U.S. Postage 03 3. Following such incidents, committees of citizens called on the City Commission and bus Company, with petitions to relieve these and other [?] degrading humiliations. They were always politely brushed off and given the run around. [?] No action was taken, Whatever, to remedy these evils. With ever increasing experiences of humiliation of the Negro Citizens on the Montgomery City buses; the stage was well set for the spontaneous action [?] following the arrest of Rosa Parks Dec 2, 1955. [?] After a hard days work in a downtown department store, she boarded the bus in the early evening to go home. The seat that she took was where Negroes custumarily sit on this route. The driver demanded that she and three other colored people get up for white persons to sit down after driving to the third stop. When the other persons obeyed Brock Finance Company $5.00 AND UP 13 N. Lawrence Street (Lawrence at Dexter Avenue) Montgomery 4. Alambama February 10, 1956 R. A: We are sending you this letter as an invitation to visit us again when you run short of money. You have not been to see us now in several months. Your business is always appreciated and we are looking forward to your visiting us real soon. Drop in to open your account anytime. R. A. as we will be expecting your visit real soon. Yours very truly, Brock Finance Company J.R. Grizzle, Manager JRG:ej 4. the drivers orders, Rosa Parks refused to move. She was arrested, [taken] to [jailed, locked in a cell] charged with violation of the Montgomery [transportation] segregation law of transportation. [The driver signed the warrant for the arrest.] She was locked in jail, photographed and finger printed, not permitted to call her family for help to be released until the prison processing was finished. Mr E.D. Nixon has been told of the arrest. [and] He came to the jail, signed the bond of $100.00 and she was released until the trial in Recorder's Court Monday Dec 5. [which] On this day the colored people of Montg'y stopped riding the busses and have remained off in large numbers till now. Hours 8 to 6 TELEPHONE 4-6476 Including Saturday BROCK FINANCE COMPANY $5.00 AND UP 13 N. LAWRENCE STREET (LAWRENCE AT DEXTER AVENUE) MONTGOMERY 4, ALABAMA MARCH 8, 1956 R. A: You have not been in to do business with us in a long time. We would like to have you back with us as a customer again. Drop in and open your account anytime you run short of money. We will be happy to serve you again as in the past. Hurry back to us as we will expect your visit real soon. Bring us a new customer with you when you come in. Yours very truly, BROCK FINANCE COMPANY J. R. GRIZZLE, Manager JRG:ej I asked for water to drink. One officer said I could get. As I walked to the fountain, one [yelled] said, "Git away from there. You can't drink water from that fountain. You [can't] can [?] get water in jail." I went back to the desk still very thirsty. [?] Can you imagine how it feels to want a drink of water and be within hand's reach of it and not be permitted to drink. I felt completely alone and desolate as if I was descending into a black and bottomless chasm. White southern gentlemen to Negro flunky, "Boy, can you get me a good nigger gal?" {Says the colored pimp, "Yas, ah, boss, I know just the one for you.] I worked 5 long, tense weeks with people who never spoke to me even once after the bus incident. They would be in the adjoining work room, sometimes the same room Hampton Institute Hampton, Virginia OFFICE OF THE DEAN OF FACULTY I had been pushed around [for] all my life [becau] and felt at this moment that I couldn't take it anymore. When I asked the policeman why we [were] had to be pushed around? He said he didn't know. "The law is the law. you are under arrest. [I actu] [I went will] I didn't resist. I want to feel the nearness of something secure. It is such a lonely, lost feeling that I am cut off from life. I am nothing, I belong nowhere and to no one. There is just so much hurt, [disap] disapointment [sic] and oppression one can take. The bubble of life grows larger. The line between reason and madness grows thinner. The reopening of old wounds are unbearably painful. Time begins the healing process of wounds cut deeply by oppression. We soothe ourselves [wiht] with the salve of attempted indifference, accepting the false pattern set up by the horrible restriction of Jim Crow laws. [Jim Crow] Let us look at Jim Crow for the criminal he is and what he had done to one life multiplied millions of times over. these United States and the [wor] world. [The] He walks us on a tight rope from birth to the end of lifes span whether it be long or of brief duration. Little children are so conditioned early to learn their places in the segregated pattern as they take their first toddling steps and are weaned from the mothers breast. Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.