Rosa Parks

ROSA PARKS -- (House of Representatives - October 25, 2005)

(Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I would just add to the gentleman from the State of Ohio that the State of Texas added 15,000 jobs last month.

Mr. Speaker, when she sat down, society stood up and took notice. Rosa Parks, the name is synonymous with civil rights. Often referred to as the Mother of Civil Rights, Ms. Parks, with one small act of defiance, refusing to give up her bus seat, galvanized a generation of activists, including the young Reverend Martin Luther King, who then organized a 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system. Finally in November of 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public transportation was unconstitutional.

Mr. Speaker, Rosa Parks was then a 42-year-old seamstress, an active member of the National Organization for the Advancement of Colored People, and had worked as its adviser to its youth council. But it was on a city bus on December 1, 1955, when her seat was demanded and when history was made. When questioned why she did not vacate her seat that day, her answer was simple. She said, ``I felt I had a right to be treated as any other passenger. We had endured that kind of treatment for too long.''

Mr. Speaker, Rosa Parks received many awards throughout her lifetime, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996; and then in 1999, the Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to Ms. Parks. But Ms. Parks wanted people to remember what was most important, to understand the government, to understand their rights, and the Constitution.

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