On this day in 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to leave her bus seat so a white man could sit. Parks' arrest sparked a year-long bus boycott that ended up desegregating Montgomery buses.

Eventually, the same type of peaceful protesting that changed Alabama would change the whole South (kinda, but that's a different story).

Remember Rosa today.

CONTINUED »

An entire generation of Southern blacks are dying off with Civil Rights-era criminal charges, proven over time to be trumped up, racist, and unconstitutional, still on their records. There are little old ladies in the South with criminal records for doing things like walking to the front of the bus to ask the driver for a transfer. It's ridiculous that after half a century, these charges haven't been expunged — until now. At long last, Southern states are making moves to pardon these imaginary crimes.

Last year, Alabama became the first state to pass the Rosa Parks Act, which gives people the option of having their records expunged, and Tennessee's version won final approval in the Legislature on Thursday and awaits the governor's signature. A similar measure failed in Florida.

"Unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct, refusal to move — all of these were catch-all charges under Jim Crow," said Rep. Thad McClammy, a black Montgomery Democrat who sponsored the Alabama law. "A lot of these followed individuals throughout their lifetime, and they shouldn't be criminalized."

It's funny how these things work. As blacks get their crimes from the 50s and 60s erased, whites are finally having to answer for theirs.

[MSNBC]