Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., received some criticism online this weekend for her comments invoking the memory of Rosa Parks on the anniversary of her famous arrest.
A Friday tweet from the “Squad” member included a quote from Parks, commenting on her famous refusal to give up her seat on the bus on Dec. 1, 1955, and her subsequent arrest that strengthened the civil rights movement.
FILE: U.S. Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) speaks with members of the press following President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address to a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on the 7th February 2023 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that’s not true… No, the only thing I was tired of was giving up,” the quote reads.
“68 years ago, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus,” Bush tweeted. “We must continue to refuse to give up in our struggle for liberation.”
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The comments were met with criticism from many who distinguished contemporary America and the America of the 1950s.
Many questioned what rights Bush did not. Others argued that Bush’s time would be better spent if he addressed “the current problems of all of his constituents.”
“Respectfully, you are not Rosa Parks.” another X the user wrote. Another user simply dismissed his comments as “quality gibberish.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Bush’s office for a response.
Parks, an African-American seamstress and local activist, was 42 years old when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955.
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At the time, black passengers were required to sit in the back of the bus and give up their seats to white passengers if the front seats were occupied, according to a local Montgomery ordinance.
American civil rights activist Rosa Parks poses while working as a seamstress, shortly after the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Montgomery, Alabama, February 1956. (Photo by Don Cravens/Getty Images)
Rosa Parks’ quiet but heroic act of defiance landed her in jail and she was later released on $100 bail. The storm of action and attention that followed her one-person protest changed American history.
The United States Supreme Court deemed Montgomery’s segregationist policies unconstitutional on November 13, 1956.
Fox News’ Kerry J. Byrne contributed to this report.
