[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 273 Referred in Senate (RFS)]


109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 273


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 12, 2005

        Received and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
    Recognizing the 50th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott.

Whereas on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress in 
        Montgomery, Alabama, was arrested for refusing to obey a busdriver's 
        order to give up her seat on a city bus for a White passenger boarding 
        the bus, as required by city ordinance;
Whereas outrage over the arrest of Rosa Parks initiated a meeting that weekend 
        between the Reverend Ralph


Abernathy, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Jo Ann Robinson, who was 
the head of the Women's Political Council, and E.D. Nixon, who was the 
Montgomery official for the National Association for the Advancement of 
Colored People, also known as the NAACP;

Whereas this meeting resulted in the announcement of a large-scale boycott 
        against Montgomery city buslines;
Whereas ministers voiced the communal outrage over Rosa Parks's arrest during 
        Sunday services, unifying the African American community in Montgomery 
        as the ministers conveyed the message of the boycott;
Whereas members of the community continued to spread the news of the boycott by 
        disseminating leaflets encouraging participation in the boycott;
Whereas through nonviolent means and the support of ministers and African 
        American and White citizens alike, the Montgomery bus boycott and the 
        beginning of the civil rights movement gained national attention;
Whereas Rosa Parks became and remains an icon of pride and dignity, establishing 
        a standard that has continued through the civil rights movement;
Whereas Martin Luther King, Jr., became the president of the Montgomery 
        Improvement Association, also known as the MIA, and helped organize the 
        boycott with other civil rights leaders, such as Ralph Abernathy; and
Whereas the Montgomery bus boycott ended after the United States Supreme Court, 
        on November 13, 1956, upheld a Federal district court ruling declaring 
        segregation on buses unconstitutional: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That Congress--
            (1) recognizes and honors the 50th anniversary of the 
        Montgomery bus boycott; and
            (2) recognizes the historical significance of the 
        Montgomery bus boycott to the United States.

            Passed the House of Representatives December 6, 2005.

            Attest:

                                                 KAREN L. HAAS,

                                                                 Clerk.