‘East Rosedale Monument’ memorializes the fight for civil rights at a Fort Worth bus stop

‘East Rosedale Monument’ memorializes the fight for civil rights at a Fort Worth bus stop

A reimagined vintage bus shell along East Rosedale Avenue commemorates the leaders of the past, present and future in the ongoing fight for civil rights.Artist Christopher Blay created the piece, called the “East Rosedale Monument,” to inspire reflection and recognize both local and national leaders pushing for social change.“Let this monument be a place of rest, restoration, thinking, walking, screaming into the void, and imagining the future that we want for all of us,” Blay said.  The conference room of the Ella Mae Shamblee Library overflowed with community members, local artists and Fort Worth Public Art officials for the Feb. 1 dedication of the monument. Blay, along with leaders from the city’s public art arm and the NAACP Fort Worth /Tarrant County branch, said the artwork highlighted the struggles faced by the Black community.Blay submitted his proposal for the monument to the public art commission back in 2014. He envisions the work as an educational bus stop that preserves the history and significance of transit buses to Black Americans.  Panels in the bus shell depict stories of the Civil Rights Movement and memorialize figures who protested segregation. The exterior of the bus features silhouettes of local students and parents.“From the Montgomery Bus Boycott to the Freedom Riders to busing for integration — it was all made possible by the pedestrian city bus,” Blay told the Fort Worth Report. “I thought elevating one to tell that story was important.”Estella Williams, president of the NAACP Fort Worth/Tarrant County chapter, emphasized the local historical significance of transit buses.Williams recalled the story of Fort Worth journalism pioneer Bob Ray Sanders and his family who lived across the street from a school they could not attend.“They depended upon a bus. Not a bus that was furnished by an ISD — but a transit bus that would take them to the only school of color,” Williams said. The legacy of the buses represents the history of Black students and the working Black community, such as butlers, maids and housekeepers, Williams said. “I have sincere gratitude toward those not allowing the bus history story to be white washed. To those who are ensuring our children and our children’s children understand they didn’t get out of the house, get in a car, turn the key and keep going,” Williams said as a chorus of “amens” filled the room. April Pelton, the 2023 Tarrant County Youth Poet Laureate, wrote a poem about the monument titled “My Southside, Our Community.”Pelton was initially apprehensive when she was first asked to write a poem. She leaped at the opportunity after learning more about the monument — and its installation outside her grandmother’s church in the Historic Southside.“I love my history and I love my people. Being able to give something back to them was major for me,” Pelton said. “I hope my poetry and the art touches people and leaves them inspired.”“My Southside, Our Community” by April Pelton

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A place abounding in love,

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This one street is connected,

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With inspiring stories deserving to be told.One panel on the interior of the bus stop tells the story of the inadequate busing system for students of color from Mansfield that required them to bus from 20 miles away and walk another 20 blocks to I.M. Terrell High School in downtown Fort Worth, the nearest school for students of color. “Despite these inequities the Mansfield school board denied multiple improvement requests by the African American community, prompting the NAACP to intervene,” the panel reads. Another panel displays historical photos of 1965 civil rights demonstrations in Fort Worth protesting the brutality of “Bloody Sunday,” where hundreds of people marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama, were attacked by state troopers.On the opposite side, a panel recounts a story of Fort Worth activist Opal Lee, the Grandmother of Juneteenth, leading a parade in Fort Worth celebrating the first observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1986. Panels on the long side of the bus tell the nationally known stories of Freedom Riders activists and of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The fight for social equity didn’t start with the Civil Rights Movement, and it certainly goes beyond it, Blay said. Many of the issues that people marched for in the 1960s are still around today. “As you walk your neighborhood, take a pause and think about what this monument represents and the neighborhood that it represents,” Blay said. Kathryn Miller is a reporting fellow at the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at kathryn.miller@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

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