[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 84 (Wednesday, June 22, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S7072]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. STABENOW (for herself and Mr. Levin):
  S. 1285. A bill to designate the Federal building located at 333 Mt. 
Elliott Street in Detroit, Michigan, as the ``Rosa Parks Federal 
Building''; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation 
that will designate the Federal building located at 333 Mt. Elliott 
Street in Detroit, MI, as the ``Rosa Parks Federal Building.'' I want 
to thank Senator Levin for joining me on this bill.
  On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Parks left work in her hometown of 
Montgomery, AL and boarded a bus headed for home. When the bus became 
crowded, she was ordered by the bus driver to give up her seat to a 
white male passenger. She refused. Mrs. Parks was arrested, and 4 days 
later the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. The Boycott lasted for over a 
year until the Montgomery buses were officially desegregated in 
December of 1956.
  Rosa Parks is simply one courageous woman who did what she believed 
was fair and right. She is a testament to the power of one individual 
willing to fight for her beliefs. Her actions set the Civil Rights 
Movement in motion and set a precedent for protest without violence. I 
would like to thank Rosa Parks for her contribution to freedom and 
justice for all men and women in this country. Her actions changed the 
course of history.
  Rosa Parks moved to Detroit in 1957. In 1977, she and Elaine Easton 
Steel founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development 
in Detroit to offer guidance to young African Americans. She still 
calls Detroit home and has lived there for nearly 50 years. Nicknamed 
the ``Mother of Civil Rights,'' Parks was awarded the Presidential 
Medal of Freedom in 1996--the highest civilian award this Nation can 
bestow. Naming the building that currently houses the Federal Homeland 
Security office in Detroit is but one more way for our Nation to 
recognize and thank Mrs. Parks for her contribution to our country. It 
is an honor she richly deserves, and one I urge my colleagues to 
support.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the legislation be printed 
in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 1285

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. DESIGNATION.

       The Federal building located at 333 Mt. Elliott Street in 
     Detroit, Michigan, shall be known and designated as the 
     ``Rosa Parks Federal Building''.

     SEC. 2. REFERENCES.

       Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, 
     or other record of the United States to the Federal building 
     referred to in section 1 shall be deemed to be a reference to 
     the ``Rosa Parks Federal Building''.

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I am proud to join with Senator Stabenow in 
introducing legislation to name the Federal building located at 333 Mt. 
Elliott Street in Detroit, MI, in honor of Mrs. Rosa Parks, ``mother of 
the civil rights movement.'' I also want to commend Representative 
Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick for her leadership in sponsoring this 
initiative last week in the House
  Rosa Parks is an American heroine. When this gentle warrior decided 
that she would no longer tolerate the humiliation and demoralization of 
racial segregation on a bus in Montgomery, AL, her act of defiance 
launched the modern civil rights movement in America. By refusing to 
move to the back of that bus, she inspired a yearlong, citywide bus 
boycott by African Americans in Montgomery that led to a Supreme Court 
decision outlawing segregation on buses and introduced a young local 
leader named Martin Luther King to the Nation. It was a turning point 
in American history that challenged the conscience of the country and 
the world.
  Rosa Parks' stand that day was not an isolated incident but part of a 
lifetime struggle for equality and justice. Twelve years earlier, for 
instance, she had been arrested for violating another segregation law, 
which required African Americans to pay their fares at the front of the 
bus and then re-board from the rear. In the years that followed her 
solitary protest, she was a prominent figure in the civil rights 
movement. In 1987, she co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute 
for Self-Development, which continues to offer young people hands-on 
opportunities to learn about civil rights in America.
  Although Rosa Parks will be forever associated with one day in 
Montgomery, AL, she lived most of her life in my home State of 
Michigan. She came to Detroit under sad circumstances--harassment and 
threats on her life--but she built a new life there. We in Michigan are 
proud to call her one of our own, and we want to recognize her enormous 
contributions by renaming this federal building in her honor. 
Appropriately, the building is a historic one, built in 1855 and used 
as a hospital during the Civil War. This legislation will ensure that 
the proud legacy of Rosa Parks is properly recognized in Michigan, and 
I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
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