Houstonian reflects on personal story during Civil Rights movement as she bids 'Big Boy' goodbye

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- On Monday, folks gathered at the Houston Amtrak station on Washington Avenue to say "bye" to the impressive "Big Boy" train as it continued on its Heartland of America tour.

For one Houstonian, though, being at this particular train station brought back many memories of a brave ride she took during the Civil Rights movement.

Gertrudejane Holliday Stone, at 89 years young, says she remembers the ride clearly.

"I was coming home for the holidays from Tennessee to Texas," Stone explained.

It was 1955, at the height of the Civil Rights movement, and she says she was asked multiple times to get out of her seat on the train.

"When he (the conductor) got to me, he said, 'Go to the Jim Crow coach.' I said, 'I'm not moving,' and he became very frustrated at my answer," Stone said.

She says the demands to move kept coming. By the time she was in Louisiana, she says police started telling her to move too, but she stood her ground and kept her seat all the way home to Houston.

"I wasn't, I guess you would say, disturbed at their response to me, but my response to them, I guess, was off of the chart at that time," Stone explained.

Gertrudejane didn't know it then, but this happened around the same time Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in Alabama.

So today was a moment of reflection for this Houstonian who made history on a train nearly 70 years ago.

"I guess in my mind, I said, 'Enough is enough,' and you know there's a famous quote that says, 'Refuse to die until you have done something for humanity.' At that time, I was very young, but I was trying to do something for humanity," Stone said.

"Big Boy" will next make its way up to Bryan, Texas. You can track its location on the Union Pacific website.

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