NAACP Calls For Transit Equity Day In Honor Of Rosa Parks

Miami FL

09 February, 2022

7:15 PM

Description

By Samantha Morell Miami Times Staff Writer (Samantha Morell for The Miami Times) (Samantha Morell for The Miami Times) (Samantha Morell for The Miami Times) (Samantha Morell for The Miami Times), the Miami Times 23 hrs ago Young students from Liberty City Elementary School participated in a rose ceremony at D.A. Dorsey Technical College to honor the late trailblazer in transportation equity. (Samantha Morell for The Miami Times) When elected officials and local leaders of the NAACP came together to discuss transit equity in Miami-Dade County, they felt it best they do so in honor of none other than civil rights legend and transportation trailblazer Rosa Parks. Parks spearheaded a movement in December 1955 when she refused to give up her seat at the front of a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama to a white man. Her resulting arrest inspired the 13-month Montgomery Bus Boycott, during which tens of thousands of people refrained from using public transport until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregation on public buses unconstitutional. Today, leaders believe, transit equality has yet to be realized – and so it came to be that the NAACP submitted to the county a resolution observing a "Day of Action on Public Transportation as a Civil Right" on Feb. 4, the same day Parks was born. "Transportation has been at the backdrop of the civil rights movement since the beginning of time," said Eulois Cleckley, the director of transportation and public works to whom the resolution was presented on that Friday afternoon. (From left) Local NAACP leaders Dwight Bullard and Daniella Pierre present the Transit Equity Resolution to District 2 school board member Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall and Transportation and Public Works President Eulois Cleckley. (Samantha Morell for The Miami Times) The Transit Equity Day resolution addresses climate change and cuts in public funding, as well as the disproportionate effects that such issues have on people of color – issues that Cleckley says the county is aiming to tackle. The department of transportation and public works, for example, is in the process of electrifying their fleet. Cleckley says they will receive 75 new electric buses in 2022 and an additional 100 within the coming years. A single electric bus, he added, is expected to remove 230,000 pounds of greenhouse gases from the county's annual emissions. One of these buses – the very first of its kind in Miami-Dade County – was present at the Feb. 4 event at D.A. Dorsey Technical College in Liberty City. Bus operator Franklin Brown pointed out some of the new features. Easily identified by a number located on the exterior of the bus and beginning with the letter E for "electric," these buses can travel up to 185 miles before it has to return to the garage, go through a sanitary cleaning and recharge for four hours. Though Brown's favorite part, he says, is the takeoff. The new buses require less work in terms of braking and speed regulation, which also saves battery, and can be lowered or elevated to smoothen the ride over bumpy terrain. "It feels like you're driving a car. It's very comfortable for the driver," he says. Bus operator Franklin Brown presents Miami-Dade County's first electric bus. (Samantha Morell for The Miami Times) Other features have stayed consistent with current vehicles, including surveillance cameras overlooking the interior and exterior of the bus, a wheelchair ramp and accessibility area at the front, and a fully enclosed seat for the protection of the driver. But before Brown got down to business, the NAACP began by honoring the late civil rights leader with a rose ceremony. Those present, including young students from Liberty City Elementary School, each took their turn walking through the bus and placing a rose on the first couple of seats, right next to where the plaque displaying the resolution had been placed shortly before. "You know, when we first received the call to action from our national office of the NAACP to encourage us to have our bus system designate the first seats on the metro buses in honor of Rosa Parks, we were so glad and proud to say, 'Our county has already done so,'" said Miami-Dade NAACP President Daniella Pierre. The county did so back in 2007, less than two years after Parks's death on October 24, 2005. The new resolution, Pierre says, is but a reaffirmation of the call for equity in public transportation. "We are here to honor Rosa Parks, but we also are here to let you know that D.A. Dorsey is here for this community." -D.A. Dorsey Technical College Principal Angela E. Thomas-Dupree. (Samantha Morell for The Miami Times) Dwight Bullard, the president of the South-Dade branch, too feels strongly about the NAACP – in which Parks herself played an integral role – and its continued commitment to fight for civil rights. "When we talk about the notion of equity and fairness in our transportation system, let us be clear: There is a difference between equity and equality," he said. "Equality assumes that all things are equal. Equity recognizes that there is an imbalance and a need to compensate for those who have been left out." "You see," Pierre added, "Rosa Parks did not just take a seat. She took a stand so that we would all be able to ride and have the same privileges on the bus." The Miami Times is the largest Black-owned newspaper in the south serving Miami's Black community since 1923. The award-winning weekly is frequently recognized as the best Black newspaper in the country by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.