Civil rights legend Parks in Glendale (published in February 1994)

By John Baker

Glendale News-Press

On the day that Rosa Parks forever changed American history, she wasn't trying to start the modern civil rights movement.

Instead, Parks -- a seamstress, secretary of the local NAACP chapter and an active community member -- was just trying to complete her busy schedule.

"It was not a good time to be arrested," said Parks during a visit Tuesday to Glendale, where she was to address a group of students.

The 81-year old civil rights activist is still mentally sharp, smiles frequently and radiates good will when she speaks.

Parks was arrested on Dec. 1, 1955, after refusing to give up her seat on a crowded Montgomery, Ala., bus to a white man. The arrest sparked a year-long boycott of the bus system in the southern city. Parks said that the man didn't even ask for the seat, but that the belligerent driver insisted that she give it to the man.

Civil rights pioneers won their first major victory when the buses were desegregated and the incident is generally hailed as a turning point in American race relations.

Speaking at Glendale's Red Lion Hotel, the civil rights heroine told a group of 60 elementary and high school students, as well as a gathering of Nestle USA employees that the struggle for equality is far from over.

"There is still a lot of hatred and prejudice among people (for) which I can't find any excuse," Parks said.

As part of Nestle's commemoration of Black History Month, Parks spoke to students from Nestle's five local adopted schools and Nestle employees. She reminded the students that people their age played an important part in bringing down barriers for African-Americans.

"Young people were very concerned about freedom and doing away with racist segregation," said Parks. "Many of the young people with me (during the boycott) were willing to get arrested."

When news of Parks' arrest spread, Joanne Robinson of the Local Women's Political Council, a black counterpart to the League of Women Voters, immediately put into action the bus boycott her organization had discussed for more than a year. In the middle of the night Robinson, a professor at Alabama State College, duplicated thousands of notices and spread them among the black community, starting the boycott.

Though Parks expected a protest, she didn't think it would reach the level it did.

"At the time I was arrested, I knew (Robinson) and I was not really surprised (she protested) because I knew how active she was," Parks told the News-Press. "But I didn't know the effect it would have on the community at the time."

Parks' message of peacefully continuing the struggle for equality was not lost on the young people in the audience.

"I looked up to her before but now I look up to her even more because I find her very courageous," said Marlene Walker, an African-American student at Tujunga's Verdugo Hills High school. "I find her a very wonderful person."