TYLER, Texas — It was a typical evening on Dec. 1, 1955 when Rosa Parks boarded the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, after a long day working as a department store seamstress. Parks sat in the fifth row, where people of color were permitted to sit; however, in accordance with the segregation laws in Alabama at that time, if the ‘white section’ was filled up, they could take over the row that people of color sat.
When she was asked by the driver to move to let a white person sit in the seat, she had simple response that still holds power today — "no."
“I think just in that moment she made a decision, a conscious decision not to give up her seat,” said Denise Pendleton, a volunteer coordinator for the Texas African American Museum in Tyler and secretary for the Texas African American Advisory Board. “I think that she just was tired of the situation and just basically said, ‘I'm going to take it into my own hands and make a stand.’”
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