[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 139 (Thursday, October 27, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2201-E2202]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         REMEMBERING ROSA PARKS

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 26, 2005

  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, when Mrs. Rosa Parks, ``mother of the 
civil rights movement'' died last Monday at the age of 92, she left 
America an inspiring legacy--a vision that can transform this country 
if we have the wisdom and courage to grasp it as our own.
  December 1 will mark the 50th anniversary of that bus ride in 
Montgomery when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man, 
as then required by the laws of segregation.
  ``I felt that I had a right to be treated as any other passenger,'' 
Mrs. Parks recalled in 1992. ``We had endured that kind of treatment 
too long.''
  Rosa Parks was jailed and fined for defying the Jim Crow laws--a 
principled act of human dignity and determination that sounded an alarm 
that carried far beyond her home of Montgomery, Alabama.
  Rosa Parks' action was the genesis of the Civil Rights Movement. 
Without Rosa Parks' heroic act of principle, there would have been no 
Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. A minister named the Rev. Dr. Martin 
Luther King, Jr., may not have been thrust upon the national stage.
  Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Parks, one woman--one demure, diminutive and 
determined woman altered American history. It is important that we all 
remember that one person can make a difference during the difficult and 
dangerous times that we now must face and overcome.
  President Clinton affirmed the truth of this proposition when he 
presented Rosa Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. 
The Congress concurred in 1999, when I was proud to join my colleagues 
in awarding her the Congressional Gold Medal--America's highest 
civilian honor.
  Mr. Speaker, these honors were well-deserved. Yet, a desire for 
public acclaim was not the foremost objective in Rosa Parks' mind.
  ``I am leaving this legacy to all of you,'' she declared during a 
1988 celebration in her honor, ``. . . to bring peace, justice, 
equality, love and a fulfillment of what our lives should be.''
  ``Without vision, the people will perish,'' she continued, quoting 
Scripture, ``and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die--the 
dreams of freedom and peace. ``
  Rosa Parks was pleading with us to stand up for what is right when we 
are faced with the challenges to our shared humanity that, all too 
often, confront us in our daily lives.
  To win these struggles, it is readily apparent that we first must 
address the issue of the continuing disparities that plague our 
national progress.
  Consider the findings of the National Urban League's ``State of Black 
America for 2005,'' the annual report that so graphically contrasts the 
health, education and general welfare of African Americans in 
relationship to the majority Caucasian population of this country.
  Fifty years after Rosa Parks boarded that Montgomery bus, African 
Americans still are twice as likely to die before our time--reflecting 
the unequal treatment that African Americans receive from this nation's 
disparate system of health care.
  African American unemployment rates remain twice those of White 
Americans. Our average net worth is ten times less, and our rate of 
home ownership (a critical component of wealth creation in this 
country) still lags far behind.
  Inexperienced teachers are twice as likely to be teaching our 
children in minority schools.
  We need not belabor the connection between these harsh facts of 
everyday life for Americans of color and the reality that our voting 
rights continue to be disproportionately attacked and denied.
  For any nation that proclaims ``liberty and justice for all,'' there 
is something fundamentally wrong with these pictures.
  Mr. Speaker, if we are to advance Rosa Parks' vision of justice, 
equality and opportunity, we must remain vigilant in creating a color-
blind level playing field for all Americans.

[[Page E2202]]

That would be America's way of keeping alive the legacy of the great 
Rosa Lee Parks.
  I thank my friend and Mrs. Parks' friend, Rep. John Conyers, for 
leading this effort to honor this exceptional American heroine. I 
extend my sincerest condolences to her family and loved ones.

                          ____________________