Rosa Parks
1948 General Motors transit bus · Montgomery City Lines no. 2857
Photo details
Joyride serves the 4,032 × 3,024 Commons original JPEG byte-for-byte. No crop, resize, retouching, metadata removal, generation or vehicle reconstruction; a responsive frame may crop displayed edges.
Photo details
Joyride preserves the complete 540 × 361 source JPEG at research/celebrities/original-media/rosa-parks-portrait-original.jpg (47,528 bytes; SHA-256 5d05b3dcf7ff2e75a4179dcc6a915a06d5e760caa8a1702efc9a6e500ed72288). The served 274 × 361 derivative is a deterministic crop from x=266, y=0, width=274, height=361, JPEG quality 95. It removes President Clinton from the frame while retaining Parks and the medal certificate; no generated content, retouching or reconstruction was added.
The bus seat that moved a nation
- Connection
- Historic public-transit use and civil-rights event association · not ownership
- When
- December 1, 1955 · The Henry Ford acquisition 2001 · restored 2002–2003
- Identity
- Individual 1948 General Motors Truck & Bus Division transit bus · Montgomery City Lines fleet no. 2857 · Cleveland Avenue route · authenticated through Blake/#2857 · The Henry Ford object 2001.154.1
The Henry Ford identifies this individual 1948 General Motors transit bus as the vehicle aboard which Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on December 1, 1955. The museum catalogs it as object 2001.154.1 and Montgomery City Lines fleet no. 2857. Parks used public transportation; Joyride does not turn that historic association into ownership.
The surviving bus was not continuously displayed after Montgomery retired it. The Henry Ford records that it had become a rusted storage shed before the museum acquired it in 2001. A scrapbook kept by former bus-line manager Charles Cummings supplied the crucial notation “Blake/#2857,” linking driver James Blake and the fleet number on the night of Parks’s arrest.
The museum restored the bus with a stated goal of returning it to its 1955 appearance. Original material was reused where possible, while parts from identical 1948 GM buses were installed where necessary. The bright green-and-yellow vehicle in Ajay Suresh’s March 28, 2024 photograph is therefore the authenticated survivor in a documented restored state—not an untouched 1955 artifact, generic bus or generated replacement.
Where the car went next
- December 1, 1955Parks refuses to surrender her seat
The Henry Ford and the National Archives document Parks’s arrest after her refusal aboard a Cleveland Avenue route bus; the museum identifies that individual vehicle as no. 2857.
- 2000–2001The storage shed is authenticated
Former bus-line manager Charles Cummings’s scrapbook notation “Blake/#2857” helped establish the identity of the deteriorated bus offered for sale.
- 2001The Henry Ford acquires no. 2857
The museum acquired the authenticated bus and began the conservation and restoration programme documented in its collection records.
- 2002–2003Restored toward its 1955 appearance
The museum reused original material where possible and documented replacement parts sourced from identical 1948 GM buses; the result is not described as untouched original condition.
- March 28, 2024The survivor photographed at The Henry Ford
Ajay Suresh photographed the restored bus in Dearborn and released the complete original under CC BY 2.0. This dated image is not a promise of its present gallery position.
Sources for this story
The Henry Ford establishes the bus’s 1948 General Motors manufacture, object ID 2001.154.1, fleet identity no. 2857, December 1, 1955 association, 2001 acquisition and extensive restoration. Its authentication account identifies the scrapbook notation that tied James Blake to no. 2857. The National Archives preserves the arrest records independently. No ownership by Parks, untouched 1955 condition, complete original-component claim, current private owner, chassis or manufacturer serial number, exact Joyride catalog link or game compatibility is claimed.
- Rosa Parks BusThe Henry Ford · Museum collection record · reviewed October 11, 2026 · external source
Individual artifact identity, 1948 General Motors Truck & Bus Division manufacture, Pontiac creation, December 1, 1955 association, museum object ID 2001.154.1 and current collection context.
- History Icons: The Rosa Parks BusThe Henry Ford · Museum authentication and restoration history · reviewed October 11, 2026 · external source
Authentication through Charles Cummings’s “Blake/#2857” scrapbook notation and the museum’s acquisition and restoration chronology.
- An Act of Courage: The Arrest Records of Rosa ParksNational Archives · Federal court records · page reviewed December 21, 2016 · external source
Independent preservation of the December 1, 1955 police report, fingerprint card and bus-seat illustration entered as evidence in Browder v. Gayle.
Reviewed
Why this is the actual car
- Photo identity evidence
The Henry Ford identifies its 1948 General Motors bus as the vehicle aboard which Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat and catalogs it as object 2001.154.1.
- Photo identity evidence
The museum says the Cummings scrapbook helped confirm fleet no. 2857 and records its 2001 acquisition as a rusted storage shed.
- Photo identity evidence
Ajay Suresh identifies the March 28, 2024 photograph as the Rosa Parks Bus at The Henry Ford; Commons confirms CC BY 2.0 through Flickr license review.
The matching photographer, venue, date and vehicle history establish the identification; the chassis stamp is not visible in these photographs.