The Many and the Few

For Rosa Parks, Part-time Seamstress,Montgomery, Alabama, December 1, 1955 

It was an Alabama day

For both the Many and the Few.

There wasn’t really much to do;

No one had very much to say.

Until a bus, the 4:15,

Drove by. But no one chanced to see

It stop to pick up history.

The doors closed slowly on a scene. 

The quiet seamstress paid her fare

And took the one seat she could find,

And, as it happened, just behind

The Many People sitting there.

The Many People paid no mind

Until the driver, J.P. Blake,

Told the Few of them to take

The deeper seats. But she declined.

Blake stopped the bus and called the police;

And Many a fire was set that night,

And Many a head turned ghostly white

Because she dared disturb the peace.

To celebrate the ride that marks

The debt the Many owe the Few,

That day of freedom grew into

The Century of Rosa Parks.