Braintree Woman Spearheads Effort For MBTA To Honor Rosa Parks

BRAINTREE, MA — MBTA buses will soon have decals honoring civil rights leader Rosa Parks after a Braintree woman spearheaded the effort for a new state law.

Gov. Baker signed the bill, S 2410 into law on Wednesday, which requires the MBTA to put decals or other devices on the front left window of their buses, to honor Parks. State Sen. Walter Timilty presented the bill, following a request from Natalie Ornell, of Braintree, the Patriot Ledger reported. Ornell told the Ledger she saw these decals on buses while visiting Miami and thought the MBTA should have them too.

“I was really moved by it,” Ornell told the Boston Globe last year when she first started pushing for legislation. “I thought that it would be great if we could do that in Boston. . . . There’s so much more that could be done to honor Rosa Parks.”

On Dec. 1, 1955, a white man on a Montgomery Alabama bus asked Parks to give up her seat. She refused and was arrested for violating the state's segregation laws. The act of civil disobedience sparked key events in the civil rights movement, with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other activists starting a bus boycott four days later. The next year, the law was ruled unconstitutional.

According to Ornell, the decals will be a reminder of Park's lifelong fight for equality. She told the Patriot Ledger the decals should send a powerful message to everyone that Park's legacy still matters today.

Photo credit: Handout / Handout