Striving to remove barriers that prevent us from building Vibrant, Diverse, Inclusive, Accessible Communities!
Rosa Parks’ refusal didn’t just spark a boycott — it modeled rights-based advocacy that treats transit access as a question of power and policy, not charity. Her example offered later organizers a practical playbook: identify the barrier, confront the rule, and insist that public systems serve the whole public.
By the 1980s, the disability rights movement had policy wins and new visibility, yet many riders were still shut out of buses by steps, narrow doors, and segregating paratransit. True accessibility meant boarding the same vehicles, on the same routes, with the same schedules — not calling ahead and hoping a van arrived.
In 1984 Chicago, ADAPT rolled into intersections and curb lanes to stop coaches the city had ordered without lifts, pinning the issue in public view. Protesters wore tags reading “My name is Rosa Parks,” linking her bus stand to the modern disability rights movement and forcing leaders to face the exclusion happening at the curb.
Sustained pressure — sit-ins, formal complaints, local actions and national coalitions — helped secure lift mandates and built momentum toward the Americans with Disabilities Act. Advocates like Anita Cameron keep that line unbroken today: bus access is a civil right, and civil disobedience remains a necessary tool when policy backslides.
Read the Full Article: How Rosa Parks’ legacy inspired a new fight over who could ride the bus.
By: Lauren Nutall
