It All Started on a Bus - With Some Confusion in Larchmont

A Tribute to Rosa Parks: 1913 - 2005

by Judy Silberstein

(December 1, 2005) There was supposed to be an empty seat and a flyer in the first row of seats on the No. 60 Bee-Line bus as it passed by the corner of the Boston Post Road and Beach Avenue in Larchmont on Thursday, December 1. Perhaps because the young woman occupying the seat spoke no English, she appeared not to understand why she was being asked to vacate the spot with the flyer commemorating Rosa Parks 1913-2005.

Nearby bus riders attempted to enlighten her.

The Larchmont bus and buses throughout Westchester were leaving a seat open in tribute to Rosa Parks, the civil rights pioneer who died on October. 24. December 1 marked the 50th anniversary of her refusal to give up her front row seat to a white passenger as she rode the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Though Ms. Parks played other significant roles in the civil rights movement, she is best known for refusing to give up her seat, which led to the year-long boycott of the Montgomery bus system and, ultimately, to the 1956 Supreme Court decision ending segregation on public transportation.

In her honor, December 1 has been declared “National Transit Tribute to Rosa Parks Day” by the American Public Transportation Association and tributes are planned in communities across the country, including in Montgomery.

On Thursday, the bus that showed up in Larchmont was not the one recently dedicated by Westchester County specifically to Rosa Parks. Residents who keep their eyes open may be able to spot Rosa Parks' name on the side of that bus as it travels through Larchmont or on any of the many bus routes that crisscross the county.

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