07-R021

2007 -- H 5055

Enacted 01/10/07

H O U S E R E S O L U T I O N

HONORING ROSA PARKS AND PROCLAIMING DECEMBER 1, 2006 TO ANNUALLY BE "ROSA PARKS HUMAN RIGHTS DAY" AND URGING RIPTA TO MAKE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION FREE EVERY

DECEMBER 1ST IN HER HONOR

Introduced By: Representatives Diaz, Almeida, Slater, Naughton, and Williams

Date Introduced: January 10, 2007

     WHEREAS, Rosa Louise McCauley was born February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama to

James McCauley, a carpenter, and Leona McCauley, a school teacher; and

     WHEREAS, At the age of 11 she enrolled in the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls

and later at Alabama State Teachers College. At twenty, Rosa married a barber named Raymond

Parks; and

     WHEREAS, Mrs. Parks, on December 1, 1955, refused to give up her bus seat to a white

passenger in Montgomery, Alabama, resulting in her arrest. Her defiance triggered the famous

Montgomery Bus Boycott and earned her the title "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement"; and

     WHEREAS, The 382-day boycott introduced the world to Reverend Dr. Martin Luther

King, Jr. who was President of the Montgomery Improvement Association and the boycott's

spokesperson; and

     WHEREAS, The Federal District Court on June 4, 1956, ruled bus segregation

unconstitutional thanks to the bravery of Rosa Parks; and

     WHEREAS, Mrs. Parks and her husband Raymond Parks moved to Detroit, Michigan in

1957, where Mrs. Parks served on the staff of United States Congressman John Conyers; and

     WHEREAS, The Southern Christian Leadership Council later established an annual Rosa

Parks Freedom Award in her honor; and

     WHEREAS, Mrs. Parks founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-

Development to offer guidance to young African-Americans; and

     WHEREAS, President Clinton presented Mrs. Parks with the Congressional Gold Medal

of Honor in 1995 for her many sacrifices on behalf of advancing the cause of human rights for all;

and

     WHEREAS, Mrs. Parks spent her last years in Detroit, where she died on October 24,

2005 at the age of 92; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island and

Providence Plantations hereby proclaims December 1, 2006 and every December 1st thereafter, to

be "Rosa Parks Human Rights Day"; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island and

Providence Plantations hereby urges RIPTA to make public transportation free every December

1st; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and he hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the Directors of the NAACP and RIPTA.

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LC00060

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