The primary-of-its-kind Rosa Parks Elementary all-school meeting included a debut efficiency of the tune, “We Journey with Rosa,” by Portland-based musician Aaron Nigel Smith
One thing particular occurred when TriMet teamed up with the scholars and workers of Portland’s Rosa Parks Elementary College. The scholars obtained an in-depth historical past and civics lesson about their faculty’s namesake: civil rights icon, Rosa Parks.
It’s the second 12 months we now have labored with Rosa Parks College to focus on the celebration of Rosa Parks Day. No fares are collected on TriMet buses, trains or our LIFT paratransit service every Feb. 4, to honor Parks’ life and legacy. It’s an annual custom for TriMet and our native transit companions, now in its fifth 12 months.
Whereas riders hopped on board buses and trains to get occurring Tuesday morning, college students sporting daring black “I experience with Rosa” t-shirts took the stage contained in the North Portland pre-Kindergarten by Fifth-grade faculty. It was time for his or her first-ever “I Journey with Rosa” all-school meeting.
Following an introduction by Principal Tina Joyce, every class carried out a tribute to Rosa Parks. College students recited poems, prose and phrases spoken by Parks. They confirmed off art work that they had created and carried out a studying of a play that described Rosa Parks’ historical past. They listened as TriMet Common Supervisor Sam Desue Jr. defined how her heroic acts nonetheless affect our world at present.
“One vital final result was the US Supreme Court docket declaring that segregation on metropolis buses was unconstitutional,” TriMet Common Supervisor Sam Desue Jr. “The ruling helped deliver equality to public transportation… That’s why we at TriMet stay by the phrases you see printed on the tribute bus we now have parked outdoors, we welcome all on TriMet.”
The meeting culminated with a debut efficiency of the tune, “We Journey with Rosa,” written by Portland-based, Grammy-nominated musician Aaron Nigel Smith. Smith, an skilled music educator, rehearsed the tune with the coed physique for a number of weeks, to arrange them for the present.
“We experience with Rosa
By means of the streets of change
We experience with Rosa
On our method to brighter days
One lady’s braveness
Pave the highway and confirmed the way in which
We experience with Rosa
Subsequent cease Freedom Lane!”
Following the efficiency, Smith led everybody in singing Glad Birthday to Rosa Parks. Born in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1913, Rosa Parks would have been 112 years previous at present. She died in 2005.
All are welcome on TriMet. At this time we be a part of transit companies throughout the nation in celebrating transit fairness by honoring the late Rosa Parks.
This December marks 70 years since that fateful day that Parks selected to stay seated when she was advised to surrender her seat to a white particular person on a metropolis bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her bravery and defiance led to the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s choice that segregation on metropolis buses was unconstitutional and fueled the civil rights motion throughout America.
