Houston’s transit authority created a yellow bus-seat memorial for civil-rights activist Rosa Parks, but it drew backlash online for its ‘performative activism’

• Houston’s transit agency installed yellow seats to honor Rosa Parks ahead of her birthday this month.
• The seats inspired conversation and backlash online, according to the Houston Chronicle.
• Parks helped spark the Civil Rights movement by refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person in 1955.

Houston’s main transit entity created a memorial to civil-rights activist Rosa Parks in the form of a yellow bus seat – but has faced backlash from users on Twitter, according to the Independent and the Houston Chronicle. 

The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, known as METRO,  released a statement about the memorial last week and said the yellow seat was intended to mark Transit Equity Day, which is celebrated on February 4, the birthday of Parks. 

“Starting this week, METRO will install a commemorative seat at the front of transit vehicles dedicated to Parks’ act of courage,” the statement said. The seats will be permanent, METRO officials told Insider. 

Parks, then a chapter secretary for the NAACP, famously refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person in 1955. She was arrested and lost her job, and the event sparked the Montgomery bus boycott and the civil rights movement writ large. 

But the yellow seats, which read “dedicated to the memory of Rosa Parks,” didn’t strike every internet user as positive, per the Independent and the Houston Chronicle. 

Actor Markeia McCarty quoted Metro’s tweet, and said “Alt options of honoring Rosa Parks: % of February’s income to charities she supported; build a statue in front of main depot of Parks & Colvin; add additional or dedicate buses as an aid for voting/commute in lower served areas,” and called the move, “performative activism.” 

Another expressed frustration with the seat in light of criticism of the agency from a local community group. “@METROHouston wont improve their service is disadvantage areas, had a committee call them out on this at a city council meeting and their response was commemorative yellow seats?”

Lanier Holt, who an associate professor at The Ohio State University and studies the connection between media portrayals and public perceptions of race, among other things, said he can empathize with both angles in the debate. 

“If you actually cared about people of color … you should have been doing more for the Black community that disproportionately supports your services than just putting this on a bus,” he said. 

At the same time, he added, “I see the other side, too, which is that you have to start somewhere.” Hopefully, the chair “is not just a symbol, it should be a start,” to more concrete action, he said. 

Holt also said the timing of this was interesting. Texas passed a law in December creating a state program to train teachers on how race and racism should be talked about in public schools, among other things, and Governor Greg Abbott has said that more must be done to “abolish” critical race theory in Texas schools, per the Texas Tribune. 

It’s also Black History Month. On top of that, nearing the two-year anniversary of the pandemic in the US, people are fed up and irritable. 

“People want something real. And if it’s not real, they’re going to call you on it,” he said. 

METRO responded to the issue in a statement given to the Houston Chronicle and said it was inspired by a similar move in San Antonio. “We respect the fact that this gesture has sparked an important conversation on social media about social and economic opportunities for all.”