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December
1,
2005 |
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Metro Honors Rosa
Parks with Special Bus Posters on 50th Anniversary of Her
Civil Rights Protest It
wasn't a bus that started it all but a bus was certainly the setting. It
is fitting, then, that today, on the 50th anniversary of Rosa
Parks' refusal to surrender her bus seat to a white male passenger,
Metro salutes her by placing beautiful art posters commemorating the
event on all buses as a reminder of who she was and what she gave us.
Parks died Oct. 24 at the age of 92. "A bus was Rosa
Parks' stage for the dignified disobedience that launched a movement and
so we wanted to, in a modest and respectful way, salute her on our buses
with a poster heralding her courage and her achievement," said
Metro CEO Roger Snoble. Speakers included
Snoble and Metro executive Dana Coffee -- an African American woman who
rose through the ranks, the perfect example of the movement Parks
inspired -- and Metro Maintenance Supervisor Arthur Winston, 99, a
transit employee for nearly 72 years and a contemporary of Parks. They
were joined by Caltrans District 7 Executive Director Doug Failing and
other Metro and city representatives. As an illustration of
America's technical as well as social development over the past 50
years, two buses were displayed at the commemoration at Metro
Headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, a new 60-foot Metro Liner and a
1955-era bus. The poster installation on all 2,200 Metro buses began
today and will continue for the next two weeks. The posters -
designed by Metro Creative Director Michael Lejeune - display a photo
of Rosa Parks along with her words: "Each
person must live their life as This
is not Metro's first salute to Parks. On March 20, 1998 the
Imperial/Wilmington Metro Blue Line/Green Line station was dedicated to
her to mark her contribution to modern civil rights. Metro-177 |
