Everyone should know who Rosa Parks is. She’s an icon in the civil rights movement from Detroit that made the brave decision to not give up her seat on a Montgomery bus when the ridiculous restriction existed that being black and sitting at the front of the bus when a white person wanted the seat was a crime.
After a decade or so, her archives are finally being gone through and archived by the Library of Congress after it was purchased by a foundation ran by Howard Buffett, the son of the Oracle of Omaha Warren Buffett.
What it does is add more to the Parks story, and the immense amount of sacrifice she had to endure. Here’s an excerpt from the NPR story:
On how Rosa and Raymond Parks struggled following her arrest
Rosa Parks — because of her arrest, because of her activism — loses her job at the Montgomery Fair department store, where she was an assistant tailor. She wasn’t fired, they just let her go. And Raymond Parks also loses his job as well. And neither one of them is able to find sustainable employment in Montgomery after that — because of their activism, absolutely. They are basically boycotted. …
This is a 1955 tax return, and of course her arrest is in December of that year, and their combined income is $3,749. So they’re, you know, the working poor, but they’re holding their head above water. And here is their tax return in 1959 when they’re living in Detroit. Their combined income is $661. They have descended into deep, deep poverty.
And, if you didn’t know, the famous bus Rosa Parks rode is restored and right here in Metro Detroit at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn.
The story is worth a listen and read. Here’s more:
After Years In Lockdown, Rosa Parks’ Papers Head To Library Of Congress