{"id":9173,"date":"2025-12-08T21:05:39","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T21:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/?p=9173"},"modified":"2025-12-08T21:05:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T21:05:40","slug":"city-of-montgomery-holds-unity-walk-for-rosa-parks-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/2025\/12\/08\/city-of-montgomery-holds-unity-walk-for-rosa-parks-day\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Montgomery holds Unity Walk for Rosa Parks Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION<\/a>) \u2014 The city of Montgomery recognized the 70th anniversary of Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oct. 1 was the 70th<\/sup>\u00a0anniversary of Rosa Parks\u2019 refusal, which led to the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott just five days later. In commemoration of Rosa Parks and her impact on the civil rights movement, a Unity Walk was held in downtown Montgomery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0almost a\u00a0spiritual feeling honestly, walking down Dexter Avenue,” said Montgomery resident Tunisia Thomas. “It just felt like a very touching moment;\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0almost in\u00a0tears now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each year, participants gather at King Memorial Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Preached from 1954-1960, and march down\u00a0Dexter\u00a0Avenue to the Rosa Parks Museum. During the march, walkers shared\u00a0stories and memories that have been passed down through generations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have a grandmother who is 97 years old, and she was\u00a0actually here\u00a0during the bus boycott and took part in it, so she tells me stories all the time,” Thomas said. “She talks about being at the mass meetings; she talks about how the crowd reacted to Dr. King when he arrived at the Church, and how much charisma he had. She heard the bomb that damaged his home, she heard it go off.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CLICK HERE to learn more about Rosa Parks’ legacy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is stories like\u00a0that one\u00a0that\u00a0Thomas said helps her remember how far civil rights have come,\u00a0but also how far they still need to go.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt just tells me that I too can make a difference,” Thomas explained. “I\u2019m pretty reserved and quiet, even a little shy, but I have\u00a0fight\u00a0in me.\u00a0So\u00a0seeing her take the stand that she did, it tells me I can do the same thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas isn\u2019t standing alone. Latisha Watford, one of the march\u2019s speakers, is part of a family that has spent years fighting for civil rights.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy father worked inside of the democratic organization in the Third Ward, which is where Texas Southern University is,” Watford said. “They were\u00a0very, very successful\u00a0in getting African Americans to the polls as they became eligible to vote. My mother, on the other hand, was lowkey, in the background. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She was the trusted woman who babysat children whose parents were\u00a0literally out\u00a0[protesting] in the streets.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But fighting for years comes with a price. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hardly nostalgic. If anything, its potentially discouraging, except I won’t allow circumstances such as this to discourage me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much like Watford, Thomas refuses to accept the feelings of doubt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no place for fear. It\u2019s time for change.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At exactly 6:06 p.m., bells rang out to commemorate the exact moment, 70 years ago, that Rosa Parks took a stand. The events of the evening were also in celebration of the 25th<\/sup>\u00a0anniversary of the\u00a0Rosa Parks museum in downtown Montgomery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) \u2014 The city of Montgomery recognized the 70th anniversary of Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat.<\/p>\n

Oct. 1 was the 70th\u00a0anniversary of Rosa Parks\u2019 refusal, which led to the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott just five days later. In commemoration of Rosa Parks and her impact on the civil…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":9185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1127],"tags":[2756,2757,2755,2754,2753],"topics":[23,1123,17],"class_list":["post-9173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","tag-dexter-avenue-baptist-church","tag-king-memorial-baptist-church","tag-montgomery-bus-boycotts","tag-montgomery-unity-walk","tag-rosa-parks-day","topics-rosa-parks-museum","topics-state-news","topics-troy-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9173"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9184,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9173\/revisions\/9184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9173"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.troy.edu\/trojanvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=9173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}