[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 56 (Thursday, April 22, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E743]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            AUTHORIZING AWARDING OF GOLD MEDAL TO ROSA PARKS

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. ROBERT C. SCOTT

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 20, 1999

  Mr. SCOTT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 573, a bill 
to bestow a Congressional gold medal to Rosa Parks for her 
contributions to civil rights in the United States of America.
  Rosa Parks and her contribution to the current American way of life, 
by today's standard involved a very simple act. However, that simple 
act, Mr. Speaker, proved to have some very extraordinary consequences.
  In 1955, Jim Crow segregation was the law of the land. African 
Americans by law were not allowed to share public accommodations with 
Whites. We couldn't eat in the same restaurants, couldn't live in the 
same neighborhoods and we were relegated to sit in the back seats of a 
public bus. If the white only section of the bus became full, we had to 
give up our seats when told to do so.
  Nevertheless, in 1955, on December 1st in Montgomery, Alabama, Mrs. 
Parks with one very simple act of civil defiance changed that practice 
and the course of American History. On that day Mrs. Parks refused to 
give her seat to a White patron when told to do so by a Montgomery Bus 
driver. In spite of that bus driver's insistence, and knowing the 
certain consequences of her actions, she chose not to give up her seat. 
The police took her off the bus, arrested and jailed her. Mrs. Parks 
was later released on a one hundred-dollar bond.
  Mr. Speaker, I suspect the city fathers of Montgomery initially never 
thought twice about that one simple act on that day in December. In 
response to Mrs. Parks' arrest, the black citizens of Montgomery began 
a bus boycott that lasted for 381 days. Led by a young local minister 
named Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Montgomery bus boycott helped to 
unravel the fabric of the South's social, economic and political 
culture of ``Jim Crow'' segregation.
  This occasion has personal relevance to me also, Mr. Speaker. More 
than 40 years ago, during her brief tenure at Hampton University, I met 
Mrs. Parks. She worked there with my grandmother and I can well 
remember being struck by how unassuming and graceful she was, 
particularly in light of her role as a courageous civil rights pioneer.
  Throughout the history of our nation, simple acts such as refusing to 
give up a seat on a bus as Rosa Parks did, often touch off a national 
movement that changes the course of history. This, Mr. Speaker, was one 
of those occasions and for this simple act, this House has taken the 
first step towards commemorating this demonstration of courage by Mrs. 
Parks and celebrating its tremendous impact.
  I look forward, as many of my colleagues do, to the swift enactment 
of this resolution so that Mrs. Parks can receive the recognition she 
deserves from Congress.

                          ____________________