Sierra Club Celebrates Rosa Parks’ Birthday And Ongoing Movement for Transit Equity

NATIONAL - Today, in honor of Rosa Parks’ birthday, labor unions, racial justice groups, environmental organizations and transit groups, and disability advocates are joining together to elevate public transit as a civil right and essential to healthy communities.

Now in its fourth year, the Transit Equity Day network is hosting a virtual two-day Community Hearing Feb 3 - 4, amplifying the needs of transit workers and riders, many of whom are essential workers, in the wake of devastating service cuts. This event will serve as the foundation for a national vision and platform for public transit rooted in the experience of those who are most dependent on it.

Rosa Parks’ historic resistance to segregation on public transit, and the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott as a whole - made up of many freedom fighters of the civil rights era - is deeply connected to the current movement for all communities to have reliable access to high-quality public transit that runs on renewable energy. 

In response, Sierra Club President Ramón Cruz released the following statement: 

“Today, on Transit Equity Day, we honor Rosa Parks’ resistance and commit to the ongoing work of ensuring that transit workers and riders have safe, affordable, and reliable public transit. The Black and Brown communities disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change are the same communities currently underserved by existing transit options, and the Covid-19 pandemic has greatly exacerbated this inequity.

“Decision-makers, from local transit agencies to legislators in Washington DC, must fund transit as the essential infrastructure it is, crucial to the economic, social, and environmental well-being of all communities.”