Senate Resolution No. 5794

BY: Senator COMRIE

MEMORIALIZING Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to proclaim
December 1, 2018, as Rosa Parks Day in the State of
New York

WHEREAS, It is with sincere intent that this Legislative Body is
moved to pay tribute to a woman of strong faith and commitment whose
purposeful life and accomplishments will forever stand as an example 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, Attendant to such concern, and in full accord with its
long-standing traditions, this Legislative Body is justly proud to
memorialize Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to proclaim December 1, 2018, as
Rosa Parks Day in the State of New York, in conjunction with the
observance of National Rosa Parks Day; 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
December 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
clarified for people far beyond Montgomery, Alabama, the cruelty and
humiliation 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; now, therefore, be
it

RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
memorialize Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to proclaim December 1, 2018, as
Rosa Parks Day in the State of New York; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be
transmitted to The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor of the State of
New York.