Can we please - please, please, please - start a substantive conversation on race in America?  There are ground rules though - no kicking, screaming, eye-gouging or biting allowed.  All participants have to agree not to put on silly hats or funky bandanas and march around with crosses or guns.  Think I'm being facetious?  OK - try having this discussion without the accompanying folderol.  Someone always has to start the button pushing - and immediately the ears close, the mouths open and for all intents and purposes we might as well be at a Jerry Springer taping.  

Separate seating by race on the Montgomery buses did not end until 382 days after Rosa Parks had her day (and lost) at city court.

A federal court order from SCOTUS overturning the local ordinances reached Montgomery December 20, 1956 -  more than a year after Parks held onto her seat.  On that day finally, the longrunning boycott of Montgomery buses was called off, and black and white people could begin to sit in the same row on a city bus.

The defiance of Rosa Parks and 4 other women set off a yearlong rancorous legal battle that wound its way to the US Supreme Court.

Following a year of civil disobedience across Montgomery, the Supreme Court struck down the city's segregated bus law.   The case was Browder v. Gayle, named for plaintiff Aurelia Browder and for the defendant, Montgomery's mayor WA Gayle.

Here's some activist court history to contemplate as Bush nominates another judge who "isn't an activist" and Rosa Parks' body lies in state at the US Capitol rotunda.

Parks was arrested by the city of Montgomery for defying a local ordinance that required her to give up her seat for a white man riding her bus.

On December 5, 1955 (5 days after her arrest), Rosa Parks lost in her plea at court.

Separate seating by race on the Montgomery buses did not end until 382 days after Rosa Parks had her day (and lost) at city court.

A federal court order from SCOTUS overturning the local ordinances reached Montgomery December 20, 1956 –  more than a year after Parks held onto her seat.  Finally on that day, the longrunning boycott of Montgomery buses was called off, and black and white people could begin to sit in the same row on a city bus.

The defiance of Rosa Parks and 4 other women set off a yearlong rancorous legal battle that wound its way to the US Supreme Court.

At the end of a year of civil disobedience in Montgomery, the Supreme Court struck down the city's segregated bus law.   The case was Browder v. Gayle, named for plaintiff Aurelia Browder and for the defendant, Montgomery's mayor WA Gayle.

Here's some activist court history to contemplate as Bush nominates a judge who "isn't an activist" and Rosa Parks is laid to rest this week.

Parks was arrested by the city of Montgomery for defying a local ordinance that required her to give up her seat for a white man riding her bus.

On December 5, 1955 (5 days after her arrest), Rosa Parks lost in her plea at court.