Transit Equity Day honors Rosa Parks with free bus rides

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Transit Equity Day is honoring civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks on Tuesday with free bus rides in selected cities nationwide.

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, ABQ Ride is offering free rides on all buses and Sun Vans, KRQE reported.

Tuesday was also Parks’ birthday. She was born Feb. 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama.

Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Alabama on Dec. 1, 1955, leading to a yearlong bus boycott in Montgomery.

A similar promotion was held in Norwich, Connecticut.

Last year, Norwich marked the days as riders, transit workers, environmental advocates and policymakers celebrated Parks’ stand, The Bulletin reported.

“It’s been 64 years since Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and initiated the Montgomery bus boycott,” Taylor Mayes, communications coordinator for CT Roundtable on Climate and Jobs., told the Bulletin. “This powerful act, along with the support of many other courageous, mainly low-income domestic workers, led to the desegregation of the public bus system.”

Charleston, South Carolina, officials marked the day by honoring Parks. but also paid tribute to Mary Bowers, who led a fight in 1867 to desegregate horse-drawn carriages in the city, WCDB reported.

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