Rosa Parks and history

Jewish World Review ^ | 10-27-05 | Thomas Sowell

[SJackson]

The death of Rosa Parks has reminded us of her place in history, as the black woman whose refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, in accordance with the Jim Crow laws of Alabama, became the spark that ignited the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Most people do not know the rest of the story, however. Why was there racially segregated seating on public transportation in the first place? "Racism" some will say — and there was certainly plenty of racism in the South, going back for centuries. But racially segregated seating on streetcars and buses in the South did not go back for centuries.

Far from existing from time immemorial, as many have assumed, racially segregated seating in public transportation began in the South in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Those who see government as the solution to social problems may be surprised to learn that it was government which created this problem. Many, if not most, municipal transit systems were privately owned in the 19th century and the private owners of these systems had no incentive to segregate the races.

These owners may have been racists themselves but they were in business to make a profit — and you don't make a profit by alienating a lot of your customers. There was not enough market demand for Jim Crow seating on municipal transit to bring it about.

It was politics that segregated the races because the incentives of the political process are different from the incentives of the economic process. Both blacks and whites spent money to ride the buses but, after the disenfranchisement of black voters in the late 19th and early 20th century, only whites counted in the political process.

[goldstategop]

The Jim Crow laws were the product of government intervention in the economy. On its own, racism is not profitable. It had to be enforced despite considerations of commerce.

("Denny Crane: Gun Control? For Communists. She's a liberal. Can't hunt.")

[Mercat]

My dad drove a Greyhound bus from Tulsa to Springfield MO and back all during the 40s. He wouldn't enforce Jim Crow. Years later after he had moved into management, he was given the job of manager of the Houston bus terminal. Several years prior to the Civil Rights Act, he closed the little windowless room which had been the "colored" waiting room and everyone waited in the large three story terminal. He also brought pressure on the little cafe, the Post House, to serve blacks. Rosa Parks death gave me the opportunity to tell my sons about their Grandad - a quiet hero.

[muawiyah]

I'm just old enough to remember when the Indianapolis, Indiana trolly system was still segregated. Every now and then my grandmother would take me on a trip downtown ~ we rode wherever she could find a seat, and would stand in the back with the black people.

There were many other white people who did that.

Then, one day the Indiana state legislature abolished segregation.

[camle]

what sowell omits is the fact that it was the Democrats who enacted these laws in the first place.

[SJackson]

Thanks for the story.

[Kenton]

The death of Rosa Parks has reminded us of her place in history, as the black woman whose refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, in accordance with the Jim Crow laws of Alabama, became the spark that ignited the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

This morning I refused to let a black woman in an Escalade cut into line in front of me after waiting 20 minutes at an off-ramp. Will I go down in history too?

[OldFriend]

Yes, your Dad was a hero. Thanks for telling us about him.

[jokar]

Rosa Bump. true courage. I'll see you in heaven.