James F. Blake

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First page of Parks' arrest report. Blake is listed as the complainant and warrant issuer.

James F. Blake (April 14, 1912 – March 21, 2002) was the bus driver whom Rosa Parks defied in 1955, prompting the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Blake served in the Army in the European theatre during World War II. He worked as a bus driver for Montgomery City Bus Lines until 1974.^[1]

Blake used his discretion to set stringent rules on the bus he drove. One day in 1943, Parks boarded his bus and paid the fare. She then moved to her seat but Blake told her to follow his rules and enter the bus again from the back door. Parks exited the bus, but before she could re-board at the rear door, Blake drove off, leaving her to walk home in the rain.^[2]

On December 1, 1955 they encountered each other again when Blake ordered Rosa Parks and four other blacks to move from the middle to the back of his Cleveland Avenue bus (number 2857) in order to make room for a white passenger. By Parks' account, Blake said, "Y'all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats." When she refused, Blake contacted the police and signed the warrant for her arrest (Chapter 6, Section II of the city code gave drivers police powers to racially assign seats^[3]). This arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and led to Browder v. Gayle, the 1956 court case on the basis of which the United States Supreme Court abolished segregation in transportation.

Commenting on the event afterwards, Blake stated, "I wasn't trying to do anything to that Parks woman except do my job. She was in violation of the city codes, so what was I supposed to do? That dang bus was full and she wouldn't move back. I had my orders."^[4]

Blake continued working at the bus company for another 19 years. He died of a heart attack in his Montgomery home in 2002.

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• "One Man Sparked The Montgomery Bus Boycott", ASU Today Online