PRINTER'S NO. 1273
No. 193 Session of 2005
INTRODUCED BY A. WILLIAMS, ARMSTRONG, BOSCOLA, BRIGHTBILL,
BROWNE, CONTI, CORMAN, COSTA, EARLL, ERICKSON, FERLO,
FONTANA, FUMO, GORDNER, GREENLEAF, HUGHES, JUBELIRER,
KASUNIC, KITCHEN, LAVALLE, LEMMOND, LOGAN, MADIGAN, MELLOW,
MUSTO, O'PAKE, ORIE, PICCOLA, PILEGGI, PIPPY, PUNT, RAFFERTY,
REGOLA, RHOADES, ROBBINS, SCARNATI, STACK, STOUT,
TARTAGLIONE, THOMPSON, TOMLINSON, VANCE, WASHINGTON, WAUGH,
WENGER, D. WHITE, M. WHITE, C. WILLIAMS, WONDERLING AND
WOZNIAK, OCTOBER 25, 2005
INTRODUCED AND ADOPTED, OCTOBER 25, 2005
A RESOLUTION
1 Remembering Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, on the occasion of her
2 death on October 24, 2005, at 92 years of age, as the mother
3 of the civil rights movement.
4 WHEREAS, Born February 4, 1913, a granddaughter of former
5 slaves, Mrs. Parks grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, and attended
6 Alabama State College; and
7 WHEREAS, With her husband Raymond, Mrs. Parks was active in
8 the Montogomery chapter of the National Association for the
9 Advancement of Colored People; and
10 WHEREAS, Mrs. Parks worked as a tailor's assistant at
11 Montgomery Fair department store and as a seamstress for
12 Clifford and Virginia Durr; and
13 WHEREAS, On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Parks refused to give up
14 her bus seat to a white man on a segregated Montgomery bus; and
15 WHEREAS, Mrs. Parks' arrest for refusing to vacate her seat
1 sparked the 381-day Montgomery bus boycott and a court challenge
2 of the segregationist law; and
3 WHEREAS, In November 1956 the United States Supreme Court
4 declared that Alabama's state and local laws requiring
5 segregation on buses were illegal; and
6 WHEREAS, Mrs. Parks authored "Rosa Parks, My Story," "I am
7 Rosa Parks" and, with Gregory Reed, "Quiet Strength: The Faith,
8 the Hope, and the Heart of a Woman Who Changed A Nation"; and
9 WHEREAS, Mrs. Parks founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks
10 Institute for Self-Development in 1987; and
11 WHEREAS, Mrs. Parks worked in the Michigan office of United
12 States Representative John Conyers, Jr., until 1988; and
13 WHEREAS, In 1999 Mrs. Parks was blessed by Pope John Paul II
14 in St. Louis, Missouri, and received the Congressional Gold
15 Medal; and
16 WHEREAS, The Rosa Parks Library and Museum opened in 2000 at
17 the site of the former Empire Theater; and
18 WHEREAS, Martin Luther King, Jr., inscribed a copy of his
19 book "Stride Toward Freedom" to Mrs. Parks, whose creative
20 witness was the great force that led to the modern stride toward
21 freedom; therefore be it
22 RESOLVED, That the Senate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
23 remember Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, on the occasion of her
24 death on October 24, 2005, at 92 years of age, as the mother of
25 the civil rights movement; and be it further
26 RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be transmitted to
27 the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development,
28 Detroit, Michigan.
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