Thomas Sowell: Why was that bus Rosa Parks took segregated?
Roundup: Talking About History  The death of Rosa Parks has
reminded us of her place in history, as the black woman whose
refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, in
accordance with the Jim Crow laws of Alabama, became the spark
that ignited the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
Most people do not know the rest of the story, however. Why was
there racially segregated seating on public transportation in
the first place? "Racism" some will say -- and there was
certainly plenty of racism in the South, going back for
centuries. But racially segregated seating on streetcars and
buses in the South did not go back for centuries.  Far from
existing from time immemorial, as many have assumed, racially
segregated seating in public transportation began in the South
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Those who see
government as the solution to social problems may be surprised
to learn that it was government which created this p