Tuesday, March 20, 2007
I boarded the bus at Cleveland Ave at 6 p.m. after work today. I paid my fare and sat down in the first row of the back seats. When we reached the third stop in front of the Empire Theater, the seats reserved for the whites were already filled up. Several whites boarded the bus at this point and the driver moved the sign behind my row and demanded that we gave up our seats to them. He said, “Y’all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats.” When that white driver stepped back toward us, when he waved his hand and ordered us up and out of our seats, I felt a determination cover my body like a quilt on a winter night. The other three stood up to move to the back. I moved too, but towards the window seat. The driver then said, "Why don't you stand up?" I responded, "I don't think I should have to stand up." He threatened to call the police and I said, “You may do that.” I wasn’t feeling tired. Well if I was, I was tired of giving in. I would have to know for once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen of Montgomery, Alabama. As I think back now, the driver was the very same one who left me walking home in the rain more than ten years ago. I had paid my fair and the driver demanded that I got down and reenter from the backdoor. I dropped my purse and sat on one of the front seats to pick it up. He was enraged and sped off just as I was getting off. It is apparent he enjoys seeing us humiliated in every way he could make us. The police was called in and had me arrested. As I was being taken away, I asked the policeman why were we being pushed around. He replied he didn’t know but that the law was the law. I only knew that, as I was being arrested, that it was the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind. I was charged with a violation of segregation law of the Montgomery City code even though that was clearly not a white-only seat. Mr. Nixon and Mr. Durr bailed me out. Why should I have been deprived of a seat I had paid for? We had endured too long. The more we gave in, the more oppressive it got.
tornaway;
I'm tired of being treated like a second
class citizen.
I didn't think I should have to. I paid my
fare like everybody else.
I asked to drink from a water fountain but
was told that it was for whites only.
The Movement begins!