Activists in Providence mark the 59th anniversary of Rosa Parks’ December 1, 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white rider in Montgomery, Alabama. Photo by Steve Klamkin WPRO News
By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
Activists in Providence Monday reenacted Rosa Parks’ 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus, a signal moment in the U.S. civil rights movement.
Several dozen people climbed aboard a RIPTA bus parked outside Central High School, and Deborah Wray of Providence stood in for Parks, refusing to move to the back of the bus at the order of the RIPTA driver, and then surrendered to a stand-in for a Montgomery police officer who “arrested” her.
“What she went through, it just was bravery. We’re tired. Enough is enough. It’s time for a change, and that was one of the times,” said Wray.
“We’re here to say that Rosa Parks opened up something that should have never happened. Back of the bus? Are you kidding me?” asked James Vincent, President of the NAACP Providence chapter. He noted that Parks was secretary of the Montgomery NAACP chapter at the time of her arrest, which sparked a more than year-long boycott of Montgomery’s public buses by people of color.
Providence activists used the occasion to point out inequities, especially in light of recent protests over the refusal of a grand jury to indict a white Ferguson, Missouri police officer in the shooting death of a black teenager.
“I’m sure everyone’s aware that the highway got shut down last week,” said Raymond “Two Hawks” Watson of Providence, who said he is Pomham Sachem of the Mashapaug Narragansett Indian Tribe.
“Everyone was up in arms about it, ‘oh, it was dangerous.’ Well, to that I say it’s dangerous being a youth these days. Because not only do you have to worry about gangs, not only do you have to worry about drug dealers and all that, but you also have to worry about police officers who should be protecting you from those elements treating you like you’re one of them,” Watson said.
“People were talking about the events of last week and the protests,” said Sheila Wilhelm of DARE, Direct Action for Rights and Equality.
“Doctor (Martin Luther) King said, ‘riots are the voices of the unheard.’ And, it’s a shame sometimes what we have to do to get our voices heard,” she said.
Deborah Wray of Providence stands in for Rosa Parks in a reenactment of Parks’ 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white rider in Montgomery, Alabama. Photo by Steve Klamkin WPRO News
