Thursday, November 18, 2010

18 November 1956 “The End of Bus Segregation in the South and Colorful 1950’s Design”

 rosaparks1
On the 13th of this month, 1956, The supreme court ruled it unconstitutional for Alabama and Montgomery Alabama to enforce bus segregation. Thus by the 20th the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which began last year in December of 1955 with Miss Parks, has ended.
Here is an interview from April of this year (1956) from Miss Parks
colvin Last year (1955) before Parks refusal, a 15 year old girl, Claudette Colvin,  also refused to give up her seat to a white person. This combined with Parks lead to the Boycott. As most of the drivers and a large percentage of the patrons of the buses were black, this was a great economic hardship on the bus lines.
On June 4th of this year (1956) the pressure across the country in support of the ban on this segregation lead to the Federal District Court proclaiming the Alabama laws unconstitutional. But, an appeal kept the segregation in place until November, when the U.S. Supreme court declared such segregation unconstitutional.
It seems we don’t actually learn from our own history. Whenever we are prone to deny rights to fellow citizens, it leads to a raucous for awhile and really only more hatred and misplaced anger. And, in the end, the law is then often made right and the injured parties, once slaves, once women, then Blacks, win in the end. This is true today for other American’s whose civil liberties are brought into question. Understanding and kindness is so much a prettier place to be. Even when one does not agree with those being prejudiced against, one MUST agree that every individual DOES or should get the same liberties and freedom as all. I am not sure why this always is the case with we American’s, but it does seem to be a pattern.
I hope that kindness and charity will win out over personal opinion. But, alas, we have so many MORE ways to fan the fires today with endless ‘News’ programs, talk shows, radio shows, internet this and that. It’s a wonder the muck racking isn’t worse, though I suppose it is rather bad. We are constantly shown lines drawn in the sand and told to ‘choose a side’. We have all been on the other side of misunderstanding, so we should use that experience to put ourselves in the place of others. And that is all I have to say on that.
Just for fun, some colorful 1950’s items. armstrongad This bright ‘flagstone’ floor gets installed one ‘flagstone’ at a time. I say this room (most likely a basement room) has really committed to its theme. It has gusto, I will say that for it.
And speaking of Gusto, look at these lampshades. They are not wall flowers nor do they accompany a room, they become pieces of modern art, I would say.lampshadead
Happy Homemaking.

2 comments:

  1. I want me some of those plastic lampshades. Why do I not think those lasted very long?

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  2. Thank you so much for the Rosa Parks interview. It was very interesting. Something I had never heard before. It was nice to hear her explain exactly what happened. Even at the time she was speaking, she explained that the press was mis-reporting what she had done. I was a very little girl not living in this country when this was going on. By the time I was grown up enough, it was the end of the 60's and the Civil Rights movement was coming to a head. I was in protest marches against the Viet Nam war and for Civil Rights for all, on principle. But living in a small town in the North of the country, I came in very little contact with any Blacks. This post has helped me to see how un-informed I really was on their plight. So sad.
    Julie in WA

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