LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION paying tribute to the life and accomplishments of
Rosa Parks, a pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement, and establishing
February 4, 2009, as a day of commemoration known as Rosa Parks Day

WHEREAS, It is with profound intent that this Legislative Body is moved
to pay homage to a woman of indomitable faith and dedication whose
purposeful life and accomplishments will forever stand as a paradigm and
inspiration for others; and
WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to give acclaim to
individuals of great character whose lives exemplify the highest ideals
of humanity; and
WHEREAS, Rosa Parks, a Black seamstress whose refusal to relinquish
her seat to a White man on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on Decem-
ber 1, 1955, grew into a mythic event that helped touch off the civil
rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s; and
WHEREAS, For her act of defiance, Rosa Parks was arrested, convicted
of violating the segregation laws and fined $10, plus $4 in court fees;
in response, Blacks in Montgomery, Alabama, boycotted the buses for
nearly 13 months while mounting a successful Supreme Court challenge to
the Jim Crow law that enforced their second-class status on the public
bus system; and
WHEREAS, The events that began on that bus in the winter of 1955
captivated the nation and transformed a 26-year-old preacher named Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. into a major civil rights leader; it was Dr.
King, the new pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery,
Alabama, who was drafted to head the Montgomery Improvement Association,
the organization formed to direct the nascent civil rights struggle; and
WHEREAS, Rosa Parks' act of civil disobedience, which seems a simple
gesture of defiance so many years later, was in fact a dangerous, even
reckless move in 1950s Alabama; in refusing to move, she risked legal
sanction and perhaps even physical harm, but she also set into motion
something beyond the control of the city authorities; Mrs. Parks clari-
fied for people far beyond Montgomery, Alabama, the cruelty and humili-
ation inherent in the laws and customs of segregation; and
WHEREAS, That moment on the Cleveland Avenue bus also turned a very
private woman into a reluctant symbol and torchbearer in the quest for
racial equality in a movement that became increasingly organized and
sophisticated in making demands and getting results; and
WHEREAS, The truth, as Rosa Parks later explained, was that she was
tired of being humiliated, of having to adapt to the byzantine rules,
some codified as law and others passed on as tradition, that reinforced
the position of Blacks as something less than full human beings; and
WHEREAS, A true civil rights icon, Rosa Parks died a little more than
a month short of the 50th Anniversary of her courageous act which many
view as the beginning of the civil rights movement; and
WHEREAS, Rosa Parks' pure legacy of quiet and peaceful rebellion
against hatred will live on for many years to come; and
WHEREAS, Armed with a humanistic spirit, imbued with a sense of
compassion, and comforted by numerous admirers, Rosa Parks leaves behind
a legacy which will long endure the passage of time and will remain as a
comforting memory to all she served and befriended; now, therefore, be
it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to pay
tribute to the life and accomplishments of Rosa Parks, a pioneer of the
Civil Rights Movement, and to establish February 4, 2009, as a day of
commemoration known as Rosa Parks Day.