KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — For Rosa Parks Day each year, Knoxville Area Transit reserves a seat on each bus for the Civil Rights icon. The seats have flyers explaining the importance of Parks’ actions.
This Rosa Parks Day, December 1, honors Parks for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man, defying the Jim Crow segregation laws that discriminated against Black people and helping spark the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. 2025 marks the 70th anniversary of the boycotts, a landmark moment in the Civil Rights Movement.
Crews to collect core samples at Chilhowee Park for study to address flooding
“It’s important for KAT to do this today because Ms. Parks’ decision to sit on the bus that day in that seat really helped shape the future of public and equality in all spaces,” said Dylana Kent, marketing and communications manager for KAT.
Parks received the Presidential Medal of Freedom amid other awards. She died in 2005…