section. Blake then said, “Why don’t you stand up?” Parks responded, Blake called the police to arrest Parks.
Voices
“I don’t think I should have to stand up.”
From the Past
When recalling the incident, Parks said, “When he saw me still sitting, he asked if I was going to stand up, and I said, ‘No, I’m not.’ And
Kitty Genovese
Rosa Parks
When no one speaks up for what is right The Killing of Kitty Genovese. Her public slaying in Queens becomes a symbol of Americans’ failure to get involved.
“I’m dying!”
she cried.
When someone speaks up for what is right Detectives investigating Genovese’s
After a day at work at Montgomery Fair
Blake noted that the front of the bus was
murder discovered that no fewer than 38
department store, Parks boarded the
filled with white passengers and there
of her neighbors had witnessed at least
Cleveland Avenue bus at around 6 p.m.,
were two or three men standing, and thus
he said, ‘Well, if you don’t stand up, I’m going to have to call the police and have you arrested.” I said, “You may do that.” Parks detailed her motivation in her autobiography, My Story: “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more
It was just after 3 a.m. Kitty Genovese
The attacker entered a car and drove
one of her killer’s three attacks but had
Thursday, December 1, 1955, in down-
moved the “colored” section sign behind
drove home from work and then began
away, but soon came back again. His
neither come to her aid nor called the
town Montgomery. She paid her fare and
Parks and demanded that four black peo-
the 100-foot walk toward her apartment
victim had crawled inside the front door
police. The one call made to the police
sat in an empty seat in the first row of
ple give up their seats so that the white
house at 82-70 Austin St. She spotted
of an apartment house at 82-62 Austin
came after Genovese was already dead.
seats reserved for blacks in the “colored”
passengers could sit. Years later, in re-
a man standing along her route. Appar-
St. He found her sprawled on the floor
Assistant Chief Insp. Frederick Lussen,
section. As the bus traveled along its reg-
calling the events of the day, Parks said,
ently afraid, she changed direction and
and stabbed her still again. This time he
commander of Queens detectives, said
ular route, all of the white-only seats in the
Blake said, “Y’all better make it light
headed toward the intersection of Austin
killed her.
that nothing in his 25 years of police
bus filled up. The bus reached the third
and Lefferts Boulevard -- where there
It was not until 3:50 that morning, March
work had shocked him so much as the
stop in front of the Empire Theater, and
was a police call box.
13, 1964, that a neighbor of the victim
apathy encountered on the Genovese
several white passengers boarded.
Suddenly, the man overtook her and
called the police. They identified the vic-
murder. “As we have reconstructed the
In 1900, Montgomery had passed a city
grabbed her. She screamed. Residents
tim as Catherine Genovese, 28, who had
crime, the assailant had three chances
ordinance for the purpose of segregat-
of nearby apartment houses turned on
been returning from her job. Neighbors
to kill this woman during a 35-minute
ing passengers by race. Conductors
their lights and threw open their win-
knew her not as Catherine but as Kitty.
period,” Lussen said, “If we had been
were given the power to assign seats to
dows. The woman screamed again:
Kitty Genovese: It was a name that
called when he first attacked, this wom-
accomplish that purpose; however, no
``Oh, my God, he stabbed me! Please
would become symbolic in the public
an might not be dead now.”
passengers would be required to move
help me!’’
mind for a dark side of the national char-
When detectives asked Genovese’s
or give up their seat and stand if the
A man in a window shouted: “Let that
acter. It would stand for Americans who
neighbors why they had not taken action,
bus was crowded and no other seats
girl alone.’’ The attacker walked away.
were too indifferent or too frightened or
many said
were available. Over time and by custom,
on yourselves and let me have those
Apartment lights went out and windows
too alienated or too self-absorbed to “get
however, Montgomery bus drivers had
seats.”Three of them complied, but I
slammed shut. The victim staggered
involved’’ in helping a fellow human be-
adopted the practice of requiring black
didn’t.” The black man sitting next to her
toward her apartment. But the attacker
ing in dire trouble. A term “the Genovese
riders to move whenever there were no
gave up his seat. Parks moved, but to-
returned and stabbed her again.
syndrome” would be coined to describe
white only seats left.
ward the window seat; she did not get up
plight of African Americans and the civil
So, following standard practice, bus driver
to move to the newly repositioned colored
rights struggle.
the attitude.
“I was afraid” “I didn’t want to get involved.” or
“When that white driver waved his hand and ordered us up and out of our seats, I felt a determination cover my body like a quilt on a winter night.”
tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in. I did not want to be mistreated, I did not want to be deprived of a seat that I had paid for. It was just time... there was opportunity for me to take a stand to express the way I felt about being treated in that manner. I had not planned to get arrested. I had plenty to do without having to end up in jail. But when I had to face that decision, I didn’t hesitate to do so because I felt that we had endured that too long. The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment, the more oppressive it became.” Rosa Parks played an important part in internationalizing the awareness of the