Woman jailed for overlooking bus segregation

Last night a woman named Rosa Parks was arrested, due to her refusal to give up her seat to a white woman. bus operated J.F. Blake reported that Parks refused to relinquish her seat in the coloured section to a white passenger. Officer F.B. Day and D.W. Mixon arrived on the scene and confirmed the drivers report and arrested Rosa Parks .

An eyewitness, Mineola Dozer Smith, recalled what she saw. “Rosa Parks and I were on the same bus. We worked together. I remember the bus driver asking her to get out of her seat in the coloured section,” Smith said. “It wasn’t like she didn’t hear.” Smith said that the bus driver had asked her to move two more times, but she refused. “It upset him I guess, because he jumped up and grabbed his pocket knife, then thought about where he was so he jumped off the bus and called the police,” Smith said. “When they came they handcuffed her like she had stolen something.”

When Parks was removed from the bus, Smith and the other African Americans got off as well. “When they took her off the bus, all of us black folks got off the bus with them,” Smith said. “Then we decided to stay off the bus until they gave us justice.”

Rosa Parks was later released under a $100 bond and is due to appear in court on Monday 5th December 1955.

Rosa Parks