Highlander Staff after the National Day Walkout in Solidarity with Ferguson
On this day 59 years ago—December 1, 1955—Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, ultimately sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a key milestone and victory in the Civil Rights Movement…. We honor Mrs. Park’s courage on that day and her life-long activism and passion for racial justice. Today, in the spirit of Rosa Parks, we lift up the call to action and power of resistance, from shutting down highways to locking down the BART to today’s #HandsUpWalkOut action, and we honor the bravery and leadership of those, especially young people of color, who are taking their own stands for freedom and justice in Ferguson and across the country. Attending a Highlander desegregation workshop just four months before refusing to give up her seat, Mrs. Parks said, “At Highlander, I found out for the first time in my adult life that this could be a unified society, that there was such a thing as people of differing races and backgrounds meeting together in workshops and living together in peace and harmony. I gained there strength to persevere in my work for freedom.”