Media Contact: Randol White, 650-647-3489
In honor of “the mother of the Civil Rights Movement” Rosa Parks, San Mateo County Transit District employees will hand out posters with her image from noon to 1 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 4, as part of a partnership with the Domini Hoskins Black History Museum & Learning Center in Redwood City.
SamTrans will also have one of its new battery-electric buses parked in front of the museum to showcase zero-emission technology that’s being used in equity priority areas of San Mateo County.
The museum will serve cake and ice cream and hand out Rosa Parks booklets while supplies last from noon to 1 p.m. as part of its scheduled events for the day.
“This year we wanted to honor Rosa Parks on her birthday in partnership with the museum and through our annual practice of marking a seat reserved in her name on all SamTrans buses throughout our service area,” said SamTrans General Manager/CEO April Chan. “Equity is a guiding principle at SamTrans as we prioritize service investments in communities where concentrations of residents experience the most mobility and economic disparities.”
In recent years, Rosa Parks birthday has become a national day of action, known as Transit Equity Day, commemorating the woman behind what many see as the spark that started the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
On Dec. 1, 1955, Parks became an iconic part of history when she refused to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery, Ala. public transit bus and was subsequently arrested. This led to the 13-month-long Montgomery bus boycott that ended with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses is unconstitutional.
“We’re excited to collaborate with SamTrans as we celebrate the life and legacy of civil rights icon Rosa Parks,” said the museum’s Executive Director Carolyn Hoskins. “Transit equity is a key theme for this day, and we can’t think of a better partner than SamTrans to help make this point in San Mateo County.”
The Domini Hoskins Black History Museum and Learning Center is located at 890 Jefferson St., Redwood City, CA 94063.
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About SamTrans:
The San Mateo County Transit District operates 71 routes and two on-demand service areas. Funded in part by a half-cent sales tax, the district also provides administrative support for Caltrain and the San Mateo County Transportation Authority. SamTrans has provided bus service to San Mateo County customers since 1976.
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