Folk Figure. A native of Montgomery, Alabama, he served in the United States Army during World War II. He was the bus driver who on December 1, 1955, insisted that a African American woman named Rosa Parks give up her seat in the front of the bus to a white man, and move to the back of the bus. For this Rosa Parks refused and was immediately arrested after Blake contacted the police and signed a warrant for her arrest. This sparked the 1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott and the United States Supreme Court decision abolishing segregation in transportation. After Parks' was taken into custody by the police, Blake responded by saying, '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 damn bus was full and she wouldn't move back. I had my orders.' In 1943 Parks had boarded the same bus, number 2857, and driven by Blake, but was simply told to use the back entrance and to follow his rules, but Rosa simply just stepped off the bus. Blake continued to work for the bus company until he retired in 1974. He died in Montgomery, Alabama, in 2002, at the age of 89, following a heart attack at his home. The incident turned Rosa Parks into a national hero and a Civil Rights Activist for all African Americans. She died in 2005 at the age of 89, and was given a hero's funeral.
Folk Figure. A native of Montgomery, Alabama, he served in the United States Army during World War II. He was the bus driver who on December 1, 1955, insisted that a African American woman named Rosa Parks give up her seat in the front of the bus to a white man, and move to the back of the bus. For this Rosa Parks refused and was immediately arrested after Blake contacted the police and signed a warrant for her arrest. This sparked the 1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott and the United States Supreme Court decision abolishing segregation in transportation. After Parks' was taken into custody by the police, Blake responded by saying, '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 damn bus was full and she wouldn't move back. I had my orders.' In 1943 Parks had boarded the same bus, number 2857, and driven by Blake, but was simply told to use the back entrance and to follow his rules, but Rosa simply just stepped off the bus. Blake continued to work for the bus company until he retired in 1974. He died in Montgomery, Alabama, in 2002, at the age of 89, following a heart attack at his home. The incident turned Rosa Parks into a national hero and a Civil Rights Activist for all African Americans. She died in 2005 at the age of 89, and was given a hero's funeral.
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