[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 139 (Thursday, October 27, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2199-E2200]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO ROSA PARKS

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 26, 2005

  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Ms. Rosa 
Parks who died on October 24, 2005 at the age of 92.
  In 1955, Rosa Parks was a seamstress, housekeeper and volunteer at 
the local NAACP chapter in Montgomery, Alabama. One winter evening, the 
42-year-old was riding a city bus home after a long day of work. Rather 
than give up her seat to a white person, she chose to be arrested, 
setting off a 381-day boycott of the bus system organized by a young 
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Her simple act of defiance was an 
important catalyst in the Civil Rights Movement. She was arrested and 
later found guilty by a local court of violating segregation, but her 
case eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court which overturned the Jim 
Crow-era laws.
  Many civil rights pioneers would fight against injustice, helping 
advance genuine equality among citizens. Yet Rosa Parks was unique; a 
true American icon who embodied the notion that one person can make a 
difference, that a snowball can turn into an avalanche. She was the 
anonymous victim of discrimination whose fame quickly spread; a woman 
of profound inner-strength and deep conviction who selflessly 
volunteered herself for the greater cause of liberty. Her bravery 
galvanized thousands to use non-violent means to move Congress to pass 
landmark civil rights and voting rights legislation.
  Two years ago, I joined a civil rights pilgrimage to Selma, 
Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama. Led by Representative John Lewis 
and the Faith in Politics Institute, the pilgrimage took Members of the 
House and Senate

[[Page E2200]]

to the sites of many of the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 
1960s. It was an unforgettable experience. All of the Members of 
Congress felt as I did, how lucky we were to visit these sites: the 
Edmund Pettus Bridge, the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Church, the 16th 
Street Baptist Church, the Civil Rights Institute and the Rosa Parks 
Museum, with some of the activists who led the movement. To see these 
places through their eyes, to hear them describe what it was like when 
the very church we were sitting in was under siege by an angry mob of 
segregationists, to witness tears come down their cheeks as they 
thought of where they had been and where we were standing.
  As we reflected on the moving events of the pilgrimage, the Members 
of Congress--many like me, too young to remember well the civil rights 
movement--kept asking ourselves two questions: What would I have done? 
Would I have been an activist, or, like so many Americans, simply 
indifferent? And what about today? What is the contemporary relevance 
of the civil rights movement?
  The more we pondered what we would have done, black or white, had we 
been born into 1960's Alabama, and the more we asked ourselves about 
what we could do to advance the civil rights movement today, the more I 
began to realize that the two questions were really interconnected.
  The best window into what we would have done, the best insight into 
what might have been, can be gleaned from what we do in the future. 
While America today provides all of its citizens with more 
opportunities and better protects those most vulnerable, too many still 
face vestiges of bigotry. We can look to the Civil Rights Movement to 
inspire us to build a greater and more just society, but we must learn 
from the example set by Rosa Parks that each of us must take an 
affirmative step to ensure that our country remains faithful to the 
ideals of its founding. If we dedicate ourselves to the cause of racial 
justice, arm ourselves with an appreciation of history, and commit 
ourselves to the provision of equal opportunity to all, we will stand 
on the frontier of the new civil rights movement. And that would be the 
most fitting pilgrimage of all.

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