Cold Open

This factory refurbished episode of History Daily originally aired on December 1st, 2021.

A listener note: This episode contains references to sexual assault. It may not be suitable for all audiences.

It’s November 1943 on the streets of Montgomery, Alabama’s state capital. A seamstress named Rosa Parks waits at the bus stop. It’s a dreary, wet afternoon. When the bus finally arrives, Rosa enters through the front door and pays her fare. But as she heads for a seat, the driver barks at her to get off and re-enter at the back.

But it’s raining outside. And Rosa’s feet are aching; she’s in no mood for petty rules. So she ignores him and heads down the aisle anyway. 

The driver leaps to his feet and yells at her to stop. Flustered, Rosa drops her purse. She bends to pick it up, momentarily perching on a seat reserved for whites only. The driver grabs hold of her sleeve, his face filled with rage. 

Though eighty years have passed since the Thirteenth Amendment officially abolished slavery in the United States, there are still signs of oppression against Black Americans everywhere, especially in Southern states like Alabama.

Since 1900, buses in Montgomery have been segregated. Black Americans are permitted to sit in the ten seats at the back, or in the middle 16 at the driver’s discretion. The front is reserved for white passengers. 

And there are other, unwritten, torments that white drivers like to impose on their black passengers like verbal abuse and shortchanging. But there's one abuse that this driver - James Blake - is well known for: making black passengers get off and then re-enter from the back door so they don’t have to pass white passengers seated at the front. Driver Blake manhandles Rosa off the bus and onto the sidewalk. The doors close and the bus drives away. Rosa adjusts her hat, tugs the creases from her sleeve and prepares for the long walk home in the rain. She vows that she will never travel with that driver again. But this will not be the last time the pair have a run-in. 

12 years later, on December 1st, 1955, Rosa Parks will once again refuse to do as Blake asks, sparking a chain of events that will lead to her becoming known as ‘The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement’. 

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. 

Today is December 1st, 1955: Rosa Parks Makes a Stand.

Act One: Activist

It’s 1919 in Pine Level, a small rural town about 20 miles northwest of Montgomery, Alabama, 36 years before Rosa Parks and James Blake meet again.  

Rosa is six years old. She settles herself on the floor next to a rocking chair on the front porch. Her grandfather, Sylvester Edwards, reaches down to pat her head. Then he leans back and rests his hands on the double-barrelled shotgun in his lap. 

A low light flickers inside the house, behind the boarded windows and doors. Rosa’s eyelids are heavy. But she hopes Sylvester will tell one of his stories before she falls asleep.

Rosa has been living with her grandparents for four years, since her parents separated, and her mother Leona brought her to Pine Level. Her grandfather was born into slavery, the son of a white plantation owner and his black housekeeper. At the end of the Civil War, he inherited 18 acres of farmland through his wife’s family. They hoped to live in peace as freed Americans. 

But the anti-black Jim Crow laws in the South have made that impossible: state and local laws have legalised racial segregation, making sure that African Americans are kept as second-class citizens. And the rapidly growing white supremacist group, the Ku Klux Klan, like to remind them of that. The KKK terrorize the area nightly, torching African American churches and schools, assaulting and kidnapping Rosa’s neighbors. They often pass Sylvester’s porch. 

So every night, Sylvester guards their house, determined to protect his home and family at all costs. Tonight, just as Rosa drifts off to sleep, Sylvester bolts upright, startling Rosa awake.

She shivers with fear and anticipation. She recalls her grandfather's words that the first Ku-Kluxer to invade their home would surely die. Rosa has often wished she’d get to see this. Tonight, she might get her chance. 

Off in the distance, she hears the cry of a man, then the spinning wheel of a car tearing down a dirt road. The vehicle is driving away. Rosa and her grandfather relax. The Klan will not be coming for them tonight.

Sylvester is an inspiration to the young Rosa. Not only is he courageous. He also understands the power of education. So Rosa studies hard at school. She ends up trying for her high school diploma at Alabama State Teacher’s College, though she is forced to leave to care for her grandmother. Sylvester is also a staunch supporter of activists like Jamaican-born Marcus Garvey, who organized the first Black nationalist movement in the United States. 

Rosa’s upbringing, and Sylvester’s influence, ignite a spark of activism in the young girl that will one day grow into a fire. 

***

It’s September 3rd, 1944, in a small town not far from Montgomery; 11 years before Rosa refuses to give up her seat on the bus.

A woman named Recy Taylor buttons her coat as she says goodbye to the church congregation. She needs to get home to her husband and three-year-old daughter. But it’s dangerous to be out at night alone, so Recy walks home with her friend Fannie and Fannie’s son, West. 

The three walk along together, talking quietly. But suddenly, their shadows lengthen in the headlights of a car. A green Chevrolet passes by and then quickly circles back. From inside, a man shouts for Recy to stop. The car pulls in front of Recy and blocks her path.

Inside are a half dozen or so armed white men. They leap out onto the street and seize Recy and force her into the car at gunpoint. Recy’s companions, Fanny and West, watch helplessly as the car disappears into the night.

Recy quakes with fear in the speeding car. She pleads with the men to leave her alone, but they only laugh and tie a blindfold around her eyes. 

Shortly after the car comes to a stop, and Recy is forced out. Then she is told to undress. Each of the men brutally rapes her. And when they're done, they threaten to kill her if she tells anyone. They drive away.

Despite their threats, Recy has the courage to go with her husband to report the attack to the sheriff. The car is easily identified, but the police do nothing. In desperation, Recy turns to the organization she knows can help. They send their best investigator. Her name is Rosa Parks. 

***

Rosa lives in Montgomery with her husband Raymond, whom she married in December 1932. Raymond is a gentle but strong man. He is also a proud member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or the NAACP, a civil rights organization devoted to fighting for racial justice.

Rosa became secretary of the Montgomery NAACP when she joined last year, in 1943. She is now helping their secret network defend black people against police brutality, murder and discrimination - and in particular the many sexual assualts against women like Recy Taylor. 

When Rosa interviews Recy at her home, the deputy sheriff barges in and threatens to lock her up. ‘We don’t want any troublemakers,’ he says.  Undeterred, Rosa gathers evidence about that night, as well as support from the nationwide black community. She helps to form the ‘Alabama Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor’. The Chicago Defender calls it ‘the strongest campaign for equal justice to be seen in a decade’. 

But meanwhile, Recy is receiving death threats. She moves in with her father and siblings after her home is firebombed. 

No arrests are made, despite the ease of identifying the green Chevrolet. There is no police line-up for Recy to identify her attackers. And in October, an all-white, all-male grand jury dismisses the case after just five minutes of deliberation. 

But this is the end of the case. Rosa urges people to write letters and sign petitions to persuade Alabama’s Governor Chauncey Sparks to investigate. 

Her campaign motivates the Governor to order his investigators to get to work and present evidence to a second Grand Jury. But, in February 1945, once again, the all-white, all-male grand jury dismisses the case. 

It’s devastating news. While Recy struggles with the fallout of the horrific injustice, Rosa resolves to keep up the fight against oppression. And some ten years later, on a bus in Montgomery, she will stand up for equality by sitting down. 

Act Two: Enough is Enough

It’s December 1st, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, ten years after Recy Taylor’s case was thrown out a second time. 

Rosa’s just finished a long day at the department store where she works as a tailor’s assistant. Distracted, she steps onto a bus, pays her fare, and settles herself in the front row of the middle section. 

At the next stop the driver shouts back to Rosa and the three other people of color in her four-person row insisting they stand to allow the boarding white passengers to sit. 

The other three passengers of color push themselves wearily to their feet and shuffle to the back. But Rosa doesn’t move.

Since Recy’s assault, Black Americans continue to suffer a constant stream of abuse in Alabama and elsewhere. Rosa and the NAACP are still fighting, but there is little hope for justice.

There have been women like Viola White who, in 1944, was beaten with a pipe almost to death by policemen for refusing to relinquish her seat on a bus. When she appealed the subsequent fine, her daughter was kidnapped and raped by a police officer. 

Then, in August 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was savagely beaten and murdered by a group of white men for allegedly whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. His brave mother mourned Emmett’s body in an open coffin so the world could see the mutilated body of her child. 

The boy’s murderers were acquitted by another all-white jury. 

So Rosa decides enough is enough. She remains in her seat.

Soon, the driver’s shadow falls across her lap. She looks up and it’s James Blake, the driver she swore she would never ride with again. 

Rosa refuses to budge and Blake threatens to call the police. Rosa folds her hands in her lap. ‘You may do that,’ she says. 

And soon, two police officers arrive. They arrest Rosa, and march her down to the station. They take her fingerprints. They shove her into a tiny cell. She grits her teeth and thinks of all the other people of color who have suffered far worse. 

That evening her close friend E.D. Nixon – president of the local NAACP chapter - bails her out. He takes her home; he wants to discuss something with her and her husband Raymond. Nixon has been formulating a plan for some time: he wants to challenge the validity of segregation laws and strike a blow for real equality.

He’s been desperately searching for the ‘right’ case and he thinks he might have found it. 

***

It’s December 5th, 1955, four days after Rosa’s arrest.

The day dawns wet and cold. And at home, Rosa dresses, does her hair, and holds her chin high. Her trial is due to take place later that day.

Outside, the rain hammers on the sidewalk and pools in the road. It's not a day for walking to work. But no one is waiting at the bus stops. The buses pull away empty, their drivers confused. 

Instead, the streets fill with hundreds, and then thousands, of commuters. The rainwater drips off their hats, and soaks their feet, but still they walk. The bus drivers drive past, their seats empty. 

In the four days since Rosa’s arrest, her friends have been busy. Professor Jo Ann Robinson, a teacher and activist, has printed and distributed 50,000 flyers, urging the black community to boycott the buses on the day of Rosa’s trial. 

And when Rosa arrives at court with her attorney Fred Gray, she is astonished to see a huge crowd of supporters outside the courthouse. As she walks up the steps, she is encouraged by their chant: ‘They’ve messed with the wrong one now.’

In court, Rosa is found guilty of violating segregation laws. She is fined $10 with $4 court costs. But Rosa isn’t going to give up. She appeals the ruling, and challenges the legality of racial segregation itself. And outside the courtroom, the resistance continues.

In protest and solidarity, 90 percent of Montgomery’s black citizens stay off the buses on the day of Rosa’s trial. Their boycott is so successful that black leaders decide to form the Montgomery Improvement Association, or the MIA, and turn it into a full-on campaign. The association’s leaders believe the boycott has a real chance of forcing long-term changes to transportation inequality.

And the boycott will go on to gain national and international attention. But as it gathers momentum, so too will attacks on Montgomery’s black population. And in Washington, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover will ask his agents to investigate the MIA’s new president – a fiery young man with a passion for justice. - Martin Luther King Jr. 

Act Three: The Montgomery Bus Boycott

It’s November, 1956, Montgomery, Alabama.

Rosa’s at home when the phone rings. Another torrent of abuse pours from the man on the other end of the receiver.  She slams the phone down. Raymond squeezes her hand. The intimidation is bad enough, but they have also both lost their jobs. 

Rosa’s appeal against her court case is ongoing. And though it’s been a difficult journey, Rosa still sees reason for hope.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott, as it’s known, is still underway. For more than a year, thousands of African Americans have refused to take the bus. As a result, the city-owned bus system is almost bankrupt. 

But the violence and intimidation hasn’t stopped either. Churches and homes are set ablaze. Black citizens are assaulted. Though his own home is destroyed, Martin Luther King Jr. continues to persuade the black community to meet hate with love; but for many, it’s a daily struggle.

Rosa travels the country, helping to keep the profile of the movement in the public eye. She raises funds so that the MIA can support a carpool after white leaders order fines for taxi drivers who offer low fares to commuters. But no matter what, until somebody listens, the black citizens of Montgomery will keep off the buses.  

In the meantime, Rosa's appeal has been slowed in the courts. Her attorney, Fred Gray, decides to file another suit. On behalf of five other Montgomery women - not including Rosa - he sues the city over its segregation laws.  

And then in June 1956, in a landmark ruling, the district court rules that Montgomery’s bus segregation violates the Constitution’s 14th Amendment that guarantees all citizens - regardless of race - equal rights and protection. 

The city appeals to the supreme court. 

And finally, almost a year after Rosa refused to give up her seat on December 1st, 1955, the Supreme Court upholds the original ruling. It's a spectacular blow against oppression that would not have happened without Rosa’s bravery.

In 1957, Rosa Parks moves to Detroit, where she finds work as an aide to Democratic Congressman John Conyers Jr. Later, she will be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, and honorary doctorates from around the world. Roads, train stations, centers of learning and even an asteroid will be named after her.

When Rosa Parks dies in 2005, at the age of 92, she will be the first woman to lie in state at the US Capitol. Her casket is driven to Washington DC on a bus.

Outro

Next on History Daily. December 4th, 1991. After 64 years dominating the skies, a series of poor financial decisions forces Pan American Airways to shut down. 

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing and Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by Vanessa de Haan.

Executive Producers are Steven Walters for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.