[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 84 (Tuesday, June 15, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1253]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  ROSA PARKS CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL

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                        HON. ALBERT RUSSELL WYNN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 15, 1999

  Mr. WYNN. Mr. Speaker, I am proud and honored to be a part of this 
effort to award the Congressional Gold Medal to Ms. Rosa Parks.
  Ms. Parks is a hero to the Nation because of a simple act of 
defiance. She refused to give up her bus seat in the ``colored'' 
section to a white passenger after a long day at work on December 1, 
1955. At that time, segregated institutions were accepted as the way of 
life in Montgomery, AL, and throughout the South. Yet, this day was 
different. The weary Ms. Parks, on her way home from a department store 
where she was employed as an assistant tailor, decided that her rights 
as a human being--in this case the right to rest her tired feet--were 
the same as anybody else's, regardless of her color.
  Ms. Parks probably did not consider her actions extraordinary. After 
being arrested and then being released on bail, Rosa Parks agreed to 
allow her attorney to use her case as the focus for a struggle against 
the system of segregation. In December of 1956--just 1 year later--the 
Supreme Court ruled the segregation of buses in Montgomery, AL, 
unlawful. Through her single act of civil disobedience, Rosa Parks 
triggered a monumental movement in America for both civil and human 
rights.
  Because of her personal conviction, Rosa Parks is a true hero, not a 
glamorized figure on a pedestal that our society often promotes, but 
just an ordinary citizen with extraordinary courage. She serves as a 
living example to us all that someone has to take a stand for what is 
right, even if it means taking the risk of being inconvenienced. I am 
particularly pleased that we are honoring her, not posthumously, but 
while she still can ``smell her roses.''




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