Rosa Parks Bus: On Display at the Henry Ford Museum

December 1, 1955 marked one of the most important days in the history of the American civil rights movement. On this day, a 42-year-old African-American woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus to a white passenger.

The Bus

According to Jim Crow customs of the time, the first four rows of a public bus were reserved for Caucasian passengers only. The other rows in the bus were free to occupy for African-Americans unless the white section filled up. In these cases, black passengers had to sit further back toward the designated "colored" section in the rear, stand in the aisle, or be ordered to leave the bus if there was no room to stand or sit.

On December 1, 1955, the bus's white section was filling up and driver James Blake ordered Rosa Parks to give up her seat for a white male passenger. Her arrest led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott which many concur ignited the spark that started the American civil rights movement.

Henry Ford Museum

In 2001, 45 years after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, the very same Montgomery, Alabama municipal bus was purchased in an auction for $492,000 by the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Among others, the Museum had beat out the Smithsonian's bid. It was only right because, for more than 40 years, Rosa Parks had made Detroit her home.

For thirty years, the Montgomery bus had been sitting in an Alabama farmer's field in a state of decay. The owners stored tools and lumber in it. The metal was rusted out. The seats and the engine were gone. And the windows were smashed out.

The Documents

Although the bus's existence had been known for years, documents proving its authenticity had only been discovered a few years before the 2001 purchase. They were found in a scrapbook kept by the bus company's manager.

The Henry Ford Museum hired a forensic documents examiner who further determined the authenticity of the documents that included the bus's identification number.

In 2002, the Henry Ford Museum received a $205,000 grant from the "Save America's Treasures" program for the restoration of the Rosa Parks bus (as it became known).

Rosa Parks Remembered

In 2002, Montgomery bus driver James Blake died at age 87, insisting to the end that he was only following rules.

In 2005, Rosa Parks died in Detroit at age 92.