Regional Transportation District buses and trains will be free to ride on Tuesday as the agency honors Transit Equity Day — a celebration of civil rights icon Rosa Parks.
Parks’ refusal to move to the back of a segregated bus in Alabama in 1955 was a galvanizing moment in the Civil Rights Movement. Parks was born Feb. 4, 1913.
RTD officials and leaders from Denver’s Black community celebrated Parks’ birthday a day early on Monday at the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial at City Park. The area features statues of Parks and other civil rights luminaries.
“We want to thank the RTD … for what they are doing in community right now,” said Sondra Young, a former Denver NAACP president and chief vision officer of the Colorado Council for Urban Development. She praised several RTD initiatives including its free rides for youth program and transit pass program for nonprofits.
What will a federal administration mean for RTD and equity?
The celebration, however, was held in the shadow of uncertainty cast from Washington, D.C., where the new Trump administration has gutted diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the federal government — and those within the U.S. Department of Transportation as well.
“Being here in this moment is incredibly important, but even more important in light of everything that we've endured over the past two weeks,” RTD CEO and General Manager Debra Johnson said at the City Park event.
“Please recognize that this is not a partisan statement that I'm making,” Johnson continued. “I am talking about the need for all people, regardless of what one looks like, regardless of religion, regardless of the color of one's skin, regardless of one's sexual orientation — civil rights is human rights and we are all humans.”
In a brief interview after the event, Johnson said she wasn’t immediately worried about any specific federal program that funds RTD and said she hopes the Trump administration will recognize the importance of public transportation.
During Trump’s first term, however, his administration favored funding highway projects over public transportation. His new administration has also already issued a memo that could jeopardize transportation funding in states like Colorado that have low birth rates and limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Many of the federal dollars that flow to RTD, though, are determined by funding formulas written in law. Trump can’t unilaterally eliminate those, Johnson said, adding that RTD will continue to focus on its primary goal of providing transit service — even in the face of ambiguity.
“I say stay tuned and be vigilant,” Johnson said. “And don't be silent.”
