Barbara Litzlbeck

NEW YORK, Dec 2 2005 (IPS) — Fifty years after Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress, refused to give up her bus seat to a white man, activists around the United States gathered to celebrate her legacy – and to call for economic justice and an end to the war in Iraq.

Parks’ subsequent arrest triggered a 381-day boycott of the Montgomery, Alabama bus system organised by a then little known Baptist minister, Rev. Martin Luther King, who later earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his work. The boycott eventually led to a landmark Supreme Court decision outlawing racial segregation in all taxpayer-funded public services.

In New York, several hundred people gathered on Wall Street Thursday, carrying signs with slogans like “From New Orleans to Iraq: Stop the War on the Poor” – a reference to the devastation wrought in the Gulf Coast region by Hurricane Katrina in August, and the racial and economic fault lines the disaster exposed.

“Martin Luther King came also to the conclusion that the Vietnam War was the enemy of the black people,” Larry Holmes of the Troops Out Now Coalition told IPS. “Not only that it was an immoral war, but also because funds have been drained out of social programmes. This made the war an enemy of social progress and in that tradition, we are opposing the war in Iraq.”

The New York rally’s theme was “Live Like Rosa Parks: Fight Poverty, Racism and War”. It recalled a woman who would later be known as the spark that ignited the U.S. civil rights movement, which eventually overturned most of the oppressive segregation laws that governed all areas of life in the South, from lunch counters to classrooms – and especially public transportation.

At the time of Parks’ arrest – Dec. 1, 1955 – African Americans were relegated to the rear of both transit and inter-city buses. In addition to the restrictive seating rules on municipal buses, non-white passengers were required to pay their fare at the front and then exit the bus and re-enter through the rear door rather than walking up the aisle.

Thursday’s events were organised by the Rosa Parks 50th Anniversary Nationwide Day of Absence Coalition, made up of over 1,000 local and national groups, including the Troops Out Now Coalition, the Teamsters National Black Caucus, a labour group, and many other anti-war and civil rights groups and individuals.

Parks’ death last month at age 92 triggered an outpouring of admiration, love and ceremony. She became the first woman to lie in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, where her casket was viewed by thousands. Speeches by civil rights leaders and members of Congress hailed her as “the mother of the civil rights movement”.

Her memorial services in Washington and in her adopted home state, Michigan, attracted tens of thousands of mourners and eulogies by former President Bill Clinton, both Michigan senators, the governor of the state, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and many others.

But for activists at the New York rally, the anniversary is not simply a day of commemoration but also a call for action. Although legal segregation has ended, there is still widespread racism and poverty in the United States, they note.

“Before his assassination (in 1968), Martin Luther King came to the understanding that the concept of civil rights has to be extended beyond the social sphere to the economic one. He considered this as a next frontier concerning civil rights,” Holmes said.. “The right to a job at a living wage is as fundamental a civil right as the right to ride public transportation.”

In this vein, justice for the evacuees of Hurricane Katrina was also at the top of the agenda. The rally demanded that the thousands of people displaced from New Orleans be guaranteed the right of return immediately.

“We have to give Hurricane Katrina a new first and second name,” Charles Barron, a member of the New York City Council, told the gathering. “The first one should be FEMA, the second Bush, because this Hurricane FEMA Bush was the one who caused the real destruction in New Orleans.”

The organisers also called for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq.

The rally took place just one day after the New York City Council unanimously passed a resolution declaring Dec. 1 to be Rosa Parks Commemoration Day, and calling on businesses and schools not to penalise anyone who chose to take the day off to attend commemoration events.

Wednesday’s resolution mirrored others passed earlier this month in Boston, Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland and Oakland. However, despite Boston’s resolution, its School Superintendent, Thomas W. Payzant, refused this week to close Boston’s schools on Dec. 1.

Organisers of the national day have declared, “A relative handful of people who either own, control or profit from the economy must know that we consider the right to live free of war and the right to a job to be as much of a civil right as the right to sit in the front of the bus.”

“It is time to declare that poor and working people will not sit in the back of the economic bus that only runs to make the rich richerà (This) is the legacy that Rosa Parks has left us.”

In New York, another event was organised by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which honoured Rosa Parks by dedicating a seat on each city bus. A poster titled “It All Started On a Bus” was placed above the front seat on each of the city’s 5,000 buses, and requested that passengers keep the seat open.