Rosa Parks, Richard Pryor and Bette Midler - This Day in History – Dec 1st

Rosa Parks sit-in creates desegregated buses

Back in 1955, Rosa Parks made a historic act of civil disobedience in Montgomery, AL by defying racial segregation on a bus, and thus ignited a boycott.

According to rosaparks.org, she is, “the mother of the modern day civil rights movement" in America.”  Ms. Parks who was a Tuskegee AL, native worked as a seamstress while serving as a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Montgomery chapter.

According to a Montgomery city ordinance in 1955, “(African Americans) were required to sit at the back of public buses and were also obligated to give up those seats to white riders if the front of the bus filled up. Parks was in the first row of the black section when the white driver demanded that she give up her seat to a white man. Parks' refusal was spontaneous but was not merely brought on by her tired feet, as is the popular legend. In fact, local civil rights leaders had been planning a challenge to Montgomery's racist bus laws for several months, and Parks had been privy to this discussion.”

Ms. Parks’ arrest started a campaign by fellow NAACP members to boycott the usage of the busses which was a success in not only eliminating segregation in the future but by also catapulting Dr. Martin Luther King into the spotlight of the civil rights movement. 

According to history.com, “Rosa Parks died on October 24, 2005. Three days later the U.S. Senate passed a resolution to honor Parks by allowing her body to lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.”

Comedian, Actor, Richard Pryor is born

Back in 1940, Peoria, IL welcomed future influential comedian and actor, Richard Pryor.  According to the Museum of Broadcast Communications, “Pryor was "the first African-American stand-up comedian to speak candidly and successfully to integrated audiences using the language and jokes blacks previously only shared among themselves when they were most critical of America... His comic style emancipated African-American humor." 

Mr. Pryor was expelled from school in the eight grade and was discharged from the Army for getting into a fight.  He would late move to stand-up comedy in NYC and later move on to television appearances and then Hollywood films, which he co-starred with the likes of Gene Wilder, Jackie Gleason and Eddie Murphy. 

Mr. Pryor is well known for his appearance in movies such as:

• Silver Streak
• Harlem Nights
• Stir Crazy
• Superman III

According to history.com “In 1986, Pryor was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He made his final film appearance in David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997). Pryor, who was married six times, died at the age of 65 on December 10, 2005, in California after suffering a heart attack.”

“The Divine Miss M,” Bette Midler is born

Bette Midler aka “The Divine The Divine Miss M” who is an Oscar Nominee, Grammy Winner and Tony Winner was born today in 1945 in Honolulu, HI.  Ms. Midler is known for her flamboyant performances such as dressing up like a mermaid while singing in a wheelchair. 

Ms. Midler is known for her appearances in films such as:

• Beaches
• Down And Out In Beverly Hills
• Outrageous Fortune
• The Rose
• First Wives Club
• For the Boys

Regarding her musical accomplishments, Ms. Midler has scored big in her songs such as:

• The Rose
• Wind Beneath My Wings
• From a Distance

Ms. Midler sets her sights on the Broadway stage while thinking that her talents were a combination of Judy Garland and Ethel Merman.

According to history.com, “Manhattan nightclubs on the side, she got what would prove to be the most important gig of her career, singing poolside nightly at the fabled Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse/cabaret in the basement of the Ansonia building on West 72nd Street in Manhattan. It was there, in collaboration with a young pianist named Barry Manilow, that she fully developed her "Divine Miss M" stage persona—a brash, campy interpreter of numbers ranging from "Chattanooga Choo Choo" and "Leader Of The Pack" to "Superstar" and "Delta Dawn." It was at the Continental Baths that Atlantic Records chief Ahmet Ertegun discovered Midler and signed her to record the album that made her a star: The Divine Miss M (1972). That album, which made an unlikely pop hit out of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" (Billboard #8, June 1973), earned Midler the Best New Artist award at the 1973 Grammy Awards.”

All History facts provided from the link below:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-decides-outcome-of-presidential-election?catId=9