The Fighting Spirit of Rosa Parks Lives in Boston Over 2000 Declare Rosa Parks Human Rights Day in the Streets - Students City-wide Defy School Superintendent’s Racist Ban By Rachel Nasca, AFSCME 3650 and Stevan Kirschbaum, Chief Shop Steward USW L.8751 from the Boston Bureau of Workers World Newspaper
For over 5 hours the streets of Boston were alive with chants, music and speeches honoring fallen African American Liberation leader Rosa Parks. Several hundred students from Boston’s elementary, middle and high schools were joined by teachers, school bus drivers and monitors. University students rallied beside union members, people form community organizations, and lesbian, gay, bi and trans activists. Anti-war, women’s rights and anti-police brutality activists, political and religious leaders together honored Rosa Parks with a call for No Work, No School, No Shopping on Dec. 1st, a National Day of Absence against Poverty, Racism and War.
Today, it was the youth of Boston that led the way and represented the overwhelming majority of the numbers. They came from English High, Boston Latin School, Madison Park and the O’Bryant Tech High and from Roxbury Community College, U.Mass, Emerson and Emmanuel College, and Harvard University. The Social Justice Academy of Boston’s Hyde Park High sent two busloads of students and their teachers, defying the School Department’s threats. Jeff Munoz of Boston Latin School defied the headmaster’s warning of “severe consequences.” He said, “Rosa Parks Human Rights Day is important because Rosa Parks deserves a holiday in commemoration of the struggle she was dedicated to. Today was a great success and I am happy to be part of it.” Students were joined by young, unemployed workers who regrettably find every day a no work day. There was even a delegation of youth from Montgomery, Alabama!
A living coalition is born and the City Council passes a resolution
Weeks before, the Boston Rosa Parks Human Rights Day Committee (the Committee) began its work to build the Day of Absence. On October 26, the Boston City Council passed a resolution that “encourages all businesses in the city of Boston, both Public and Private, to either close on December 1, 2005, or allow the many workers and students in the City who will want to attend the Rosa Parks Commemoration event taking place during normal business hour, to take the day off, or leave work and school early, with impunity.”
Grass roots struggle beats back the attacks
Even though the resolution passed unanimously, the City establishment, at every level, attempted to block and stop the Day. No “ordinary Saturday demonstration,” this work/ school day protest announced the stated objective of “no business as usual!” It was just that! Streets were closed or blocked off. Public announcements and LED boards warned to expect delays in traffic due to the Rosa Parks Day March. City Commissioner of Transportation, Dick Loring, bemoaned the fact that this was a workday protest and that Saturday would be “better” for the City. He was joined by a chorus of police and school department officials, racist politicians like City Councilor John Tobin, and right-wing radio talk show hosts. Mayor Thomas Menino, whose public silence on the issue was deafening, employed a multitude of cowardly racist behind-the-scenes maneuvers to block the day, including threats to city and school workers. He sent emissaries of ill-will to attempt to “persuade” others to stay away from the organizing and even pull their endorsement of the day. Tony Van Der Meer, a professor in the Africana Studies Department at U.Mass Boston and a Committee founder and leader, said that the Mayor betrayed the students and workers of Boston. “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” he continued, “once stated that ‘silence is betrayal’ and Mayor Menino is guilty of exactly that.”
The Committee wages the battle for the “Day”
Twice weekly meetings were held in the Painters & Allied Trades union hall and at the Cultural Café, an African American art gallery. Sound trucks, with massive leafleting, spent hours riding through the streets of the diverse communities. Organizers gave speeches in three languages as the sound truck rode through the City’s diverse neighborhoods for hours at a time. Over 60,000 leaflets, thousands of post card- and lapel-sized stickers were distributed. For two full days preceding the “Day,” right wing radio talk shows featured Van Der Meer and Dorothea Manuela, a long time activist, who debated the importance of the “Day.”
Hundreds of petitions were signed demanding that the Boston Public Schools (BPS) be closed in honor of the day. Militant press conferences were held on the steps of the School Department building. The Committee demanded and got a meeting with the CEO of the School Department, Contompases who said that the National Council of School Districts had issued a reactionary position, nationwide, on the December 1 Day of Absence, recognizing the national significance of the “Day”. The School Superintendent, Thomas Payzant, denounced the day and threatened “consequences” to students, teachers and other school workers if they participated in the Day. In an article on page 1 of the Boston Globe’s, City and Region section, City Councilor Chuck Turner, denounced the City and School Department. He stated, “…your decision will also be characterized as racist, based on the definition of institutional racism – disparate treatment of people of color. In recognition of the “Day,” he closed his City Hall and District offices. His entire staff participated in the Human Rights Day.
The battle for the march permit
City officials said they would consider a City Hall Plaza rally or a march through the community, but in no way would they permit a march through the commercial and financial district during a work day. But the Committee hung tough and in the end won an historic permit, including a mobile (truck) sound stage, to march all through the City, even though Downtown Crossing, the heart of the shopping and financial district, and until December 1 a “no protest zone.”
Support in all quarters
Ernesto “Eroc” Arroya, a leader of the hip-hop sensation, the Foundation, was the Committee’s full time Outreach Coordinator, in the weeks leading up to the “Day.” He focused on youth outreach but also spent time outreaching at City Hall and the State House. At every performance, the Foundation promoted the “Day” from the stage. Even the Boston Herald’s review of their debut CD took note that Eroc’s day job was organizing for the Rosa Parks Human Rights Day.
Union participation was significant. USWA Local 8751, Boston School Bus Drivers, pulled out all the stops, printing thousands of leaflets, providing resources, both human and material, in the effort to build the even. They participated in all the organizing meetings and many of the street distributions. On the “Day,” nearly 50 of their leaders and rank and filers participated, provided the sound set up and security, etc. Rank and filers from ASCME, SEIU, Laborers, Boston Teachers Union (BTU) were also there.
The “Day” begins
The day started with a major rally at Roxbury’s Dudley Common in the heart of Boston’s African American community. As the numbers swelled, speakers denounced Bush’s criminal war in Iraq and called for troops out now. Representatives from the Somerville 5 Defense Committee (see Workers World, Vol. 47 (41): 10/20/05), including the mother of two of the five, spoke of the case of five young Black men victims of racial profiling, facing frame up charges. Bob Traynham, from the Troops Out Now Coalition, demanded justice and dignity for Katrina survivors and announced the December 10 march on New Orleans. City Councilor Chuck Turner spoke of the Fund the Dream Coalition/Organizing Committee for the Workers Alliance. Among the speakers were City Councilors Felix Arroyo and Charles Yancy. Clemencia Lee, the chairperson of the Culture Café and a leader of the Committee, talked about Mrs. Parks’ motivation for refusing to give up her seat on the bus. The body of Emmit Till was dragged from the water, shot in the head, a victim of a racist murder. Mrs. Parks was sick and tired. “She was sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
The march began, led by two banners, held by students and leaders in the Black community. One brightly colored banner was donated by the Painters and Allied Trades Union and the other was a work of art by African American artist, Pro-Blak, Artist for Humanity. As the march proceeded to the Dudley’s bus station, the march stopped and Dorothea Peacock of the Women’s Fightback Network and the City Councilors of color and other leaders dedicated a makeshift people’s memorial to Rosa Parks, placing a red rose on the building. Peacock said, “We pause for a moment at this bus stop as a symbol to thank you on this 50th anniversary to remind some and teach others that freedom is not free… Rest Rosa, for today the youth are walking and this flower is for you.”
As the march proceeded, others joined from the streets, swelling numbers to over 2,000. When the march approached Boston’s largest high school complex, Madison Park and the O’Bryant, it paused as students poured from the building while others crowded the windows, raising fists and shouting out solidarity with the marchers
When the march reached the corner of Malcolm X Boulevard and Tremont Street, two full classrooms of kindergarten and elementary school students and teachers welcomed the marchers. Young students in the playground at the Ruggles Street housing development with fist raised, chanted, “Rosa Parks! Rosa Parks!” to the demonstrators. Participants in a World AIDS Day event in the South End joined the march to its end.
The march ground to a halt at Downtown Crossing. The streets were lined with scores of parade watchers who waved support, snapped pictures and cheered. The march continued to City Hall Plaza where the final rally was held. Queer Today spoke as did Sam Sapiel spoke representing United American Indians of New England. Community and political leaders continued to state their determination to continue the struggle in the spirit of Rosa Parks against poverty, racism and war.
Finally, Dorothea Manuela, in speaking about the School Department’s threat of charging students with “unexcused absences” for participating in today’s commemoration, charged the Mayor and the School Superintendent with “unexcused absence” from standing against racism.
All there pledged their continuing struggle to make Rosa Parks Human Rights Day a national holiday – the first holiday in honor of a woman, an African American hero for all justice loving people.