Remembering Rosa Parks

The National Capital Trolley Museum celebrates Black History Month with

a special program, Remembering Rosa Parks, on Sunday, February 23rd

at 1:30 p.m.

            Ken

Rucker, Museum Director of Administration, explains, “Diligent efforts in the

late 19th and early 20th centuries kept Jim Crow

practices off the streetcars and buses in the Nation’s Capital.  However, such efforts failed to prevent the

practices throughout the former Confederacy.   

There were no universal rules.  In

some cities in the South, African Americans rode in the front; in other cities,

they rode in the rear section.  In Washington, they rode where they pleased unless

they were on a car traveling into Virginia.” 

            While

Washington’s street cars provided African

Americans some relief from the general rules in the City which was decidedly

segregated with separate schools, accommodations, and communities, the Trolley Museum recognizes the momentous impact of

Rosa Parks’ refusal to move to the rear of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama.  

Museum streetcar crew will lead visitors through a simulation of Jim

Crow practices aboard a streetcar from the Museum’s collections and will show a

video segment about the Montgomery Bus Boycott which ended one absurdity of

racial prejudice.

             The National Capital Trolley Museum is open from Noon- 5:00 p.m. every

weekend and selected Thursdays and Fridays during the spring and summer.  For further information please visit www.dctrolley.org or call 301-384-6088.