8A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25. 2005
OBITUARY
Rosa Parks dies at 92
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DETROIT — Rosa Lee Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern civil rights movement, died Monday. She was 92.
Mrs. Parks died at her home of natural causes, said Karun Mongan, a spookewoman for U.S. Rep. John Copwors. D-Mich
Mrs. Parks was 42 when she committed an act of defiance in 1955 that was to change the course of American history and earn her the title "mother of the civil rights movement."
At that time, Jim Crow laws in place since the post-Civil War Reconstruction required separation of the races in buses, restaurants and public accommodations throughout the South, while legally sanctioned racial discrimination kept blacks out of many jobs and neighborhoods in the North.
Parks
The Montgomery, Ala., seamstress, an active member of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People, was riding on a city bus Dec. 1, 1955, when a white man demanded her seat.
Mrs. Parks refused, despite rules requiring blacks to yield their seats to whites. Two black Montgomery women had been arrested earlier that year on the same charge, but Mrs. Parks was jailed. She also was fined $14.
Speaking in 1992, she said history too often maintains "that my feet were hurting and I didn't know why I refused to stand up when
they told me. But the real reason of my not standing up was I felt that I had a right to be treated as any other passenger. We had endured that kind of treatment for too long."
Her arrest triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system organized by a then little-known Baptist minister, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who later earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.
"At the time I was arrested I had no idea it would turn into this," Mrs. Parks said 30 years later. "It was just a day like any other day. The only thing that made it significant was that the masses of the people ioined in."
The Montgomery bus boycott, which came one year after the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark declaration that separate schools for blacks and whites were "inherently unequal," marked the start of the modern civil rights movement.
Buses
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
The dim sign happened because the light bulbs burned out and weren't replaced. Courtney decided to take matters into his own hands and wrote his own sign, using white poster board and black permanent marker.
Courtney said it was annoying to have his sign so dim because riders frequently had to ask him what route he was driving. He said it slowed him down and made the bus late.
He said he understood that there must be things that are a higher priority to the bus company, especially because the bus company has a fleet of 40 buses.
And he realizes that repairs cannot always be made right away. "I can put up with a couple of minor problems." he said.
But what really worried Courtney was that bus drivers have been leaving the KU on Wheels routes because of low wages. The job isn't attractive because it is hard work and it takes a lot of time to learn the quirks of it, he said. And if the wages aren't good enough, people have no incentive to take the job, he said.
The root of the problem, he said, is that the University doesn't contribute enough money to the bus system.
KU on Wheels made just under $875,000 last year, Quisenberry of. Of that amount, half
was from student fees, and the remainder came from user fees, such as the sale of bus passes.
The Lawrence Bus Company received just over $600,000 this year for providing KU on Wheels with buses and drivers. About $272,000 was given to Safe Ride and the Lift Van, two services offered to students by KU on Wheels.
Mortinger said the Lawrence Bus Company determined how funds were used, what repairs would be made, and when those repairs would be made.
The Lawrence Bus Company did not return phone calls asking for comment.
— Edited by Erick R. Schmidt
Taylor Miller/KANSAN
Jessica Christenberry, DeSoo senior, carves the finishing touches on her SUA-Jack-o-Lantern at the annual Haunted Hawk Nights pumpking-carving contest Saturday evening. Christenberry's carving partner, Christen Ronksley, Wichita freshman, was a member of the Hawk Nights committee that welcomed 225 guests to the event that included free palm readings, the movie "Shaun of the Dead" and extended Cosmic Bowling. Hawk Nights will hold a salsa-dancing competition that includes free lessons, in November.
LIBERTY HALL 644 Mass
749-1912
Ready, set, carve!
LIBERTY NALL 749-1912
THUMBUBSERK(R)
4:30 7:00 9:15
JUNEBUG(R)
4:40 7:10 9:20
2 for 1 admission tonight!!!
Top to bottom,left to right the history of KU sleeps every night.
I'm tucked away, safe and sound In a place with knowledge All around.
Use the daily clues to find this year's Homecoming Medallion. A different clue will be revealed every day this week, and by Friday the Medallion's location will be named. Keep your eyes open and you could be the winner of the first annual Medallion Hunt.
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