[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 147 (Tuesday, November 8, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2301-E2303]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO ROSA PARKS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 8, 2005

  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, this past week, America laid to rest Ms. 
Rosa Parks, preeminent civil rights leader of the 20th century. Ms. 
Parks embodied the clarion call of Sojourner Truth to champion the 
rights of those dispossessed and marginalized. Through her acts of 
courage and inspiration, she, as woman, awakened the conscience of a 
nation and moved us to be better than we had been, indeed to form a 
more perfect union. In her memory, a homegoing memorial service was 
held in Detroit, Michigan, her adopted hometown, on Nov. 2, during 
which the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr. of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, 
rendered these words of comfort. It is my privilege to enter them in 
the Congressional Record as a living testimony to her life and the 
world and nation she helped transform.

                      Rosa Parks: Words of Comfort

       We are here this morning for serious business. On so many 
     occasions, negros have been intimidated and humiliated and 
     oppressed because of the sheer fact that they were negros. 
     Just the other day, just last Thursday to be exact, one of 
     the finest citizens in Montgomery--not one of the finest 
     negro citizens, but one of the finest citizens in 
     Montgomery--was taken from a bus and carried to jail and 
     arrested because she refused to get up to give her seat to a 
     white person.
       When the history books are written in the future, somebody 
     will have to say, ``There lived a race of people--, a black 
     people, a people who had the moral courage to stand up for 
     their rights!.''--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Montgomery, 
     Alabama, December 1955


                 rosa parks: freedom fighter--liberator

       The Book of Esther. Chapter IV, Verses 12-16:
       12: And they told to Mordecai Esther's words.
       13: Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not 
     with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more 
     than all the Jews.
       14: For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, 
     then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the 
     Jews from another place; but thou in thy father's house shall 
     be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the 
     kingdom for such a time as this?
       15: Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer.
       16: Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in 
     Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink for 
     three days, night or day: I and also my maidens will fast 
     likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not 
     according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.
       Isaiah, 40 chapter, 31st verse, ``but they shall wait upon 
     the Lord shall renew their strength; they will mount up with 
     wings like eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they 
     shall walk and not faint.''
       The 2005 freedom bound train is full of giants. John 
     Johnson, Johnson Publishing, who illuminated our way. Vivian 
     Malone Jones who opened up closed doors at the University of 
     Alabama; C. Delores Tucker, first African American Secretary 
     of State of Pennsylvania, a pacesetter. Judge Constance Baker 
     Motley along with justice Thurgood helped to brake backbone 
     of legal segregation. And now Rosa Parks, our morning star, 
     the star that led us by night; when it's real dark, one light 
     will challenge all of the darkness, and give us hope and 
     direction.
       For such an awesome force in history, we wrestle with the 
     countless ways, ``how do we express ourselves, our thanks, 
     her meaning, her impact.
       The question was once raised in Micah, how do you worship? 
     Do you give the Lord fatted calves and rams and rivers of 
     oil? Meaningless sacrifices. The answer was, ``O man, you 
     know what is good; you know what matters. Do justice, and to 
     love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
       Perhaps for Sister Parks, a statue in the great Hall of 
     Congress as projected in a legislative bill by Congressman 
     Jackson, as a founding mother of the new America. Surely if 
     Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, leaders of the Confederacy 
     who led the drive for secession, sedition, segregation and 
     slavery and treason, could be there, why not have the 
     guardian angel there to keep an eye on them, and to protect 
     the true character of the American Dream.
       Perhaps the extension of the voting rights with enforcement 
     powers, 50 years later.
       Perhaps a White House conference on civil rights. 50 years 
     later--post Rosa Parks and hurricane Katrina, a White House 
     conference on civil rights is needed. We must say to Mrs. 
     Parks, your legacy is secure, your sacrifice is not in vain, 
     but your work is unfinished and under attack. You lifted us 
     up; we will not let you down.
       We often reference her qualifications for this huge role in 
     history--her vocation as a seamstress, her civil rights 
     membership, her humility and temperament. But her biggest 
     quality is she was available.
       One of the outstanding attributes of Mrs. Parks is that she 
     was available. Her humility, her steeled courage, her non-
     negotiable dignity, speaks to us in the fullness of time, 
     after 336 years of struggle--from the hull of ships to the 
     back of the bus--in the fullness of time, she said, here am 
     I, send me. I am available.
       God uses the strength of the available. He is not bound by 
     the credentialed and the unavailable. Each time I go back 
     across the bloodstained Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, 
     Alabama--the battlefield of our modern day voting rights 
     act--I recall the struggle led by Hosea Williams, a shot up 
     war veteran, and Congressman John Lewis, a student, on that 
     Sunday. There were no pastors of major churches, no 
     convention presidents, no bishops, no doctors or lawyers, no 
     political party leaders, no scholars, no elected officials, 
     judges or business leaders. Just ordinary people.
       Mrs. Boynton, Mrs. Foster, Sunshine, Lester Hankerson, 
     Cottonreader from Mississippi. Ordinary people, available to 
     do God's will. Ordinary people.
       They upended the Congress, the White House, and the world. 
     They captured the imagination of the world by absorbing the 
     blows and suffering us into a new day. Your success and 
     reputation and status are not bargaining chips with God.
       Calvary teaches, suffering breeds character, character 
     breeds faith, and in the end, faith will prevail.
       Who are the available?
       (a) It may be some teenage boy, a great underdog with a 
     slingshot, taking on some giant Goliath. He emerges the 
     winner, an unlikely hero. He was available.
       (b) It may be some rescued baby, Moses, avoiding a death 
     warrant by the King, an edict of genocide, aided by some 
     ingenuous prayer warrior mother, who grew up in the King's 
     household but comes unto his highest self and says. ``Let My 
     People Go.''
       (c) It may be some Esther, some orphan, after prodding by 
     her uncle, moving beyond the political law and risking 
     personal comfort for the common good, who rises up realizing 
     her people are in jeopardy, declaring if I perish, let me 
     perish. I am going to meet the King. God uses the available.
       (d) It may be some freedom fighting seamstress, unarmed 
     without guns or bullets, but with a breastplate of 
     righteousness in the heart of the confederacy which says 
     ``Like a Tree Planted by the Rivers of Water, I Will Not be 
     Moved.''
       I will defy the unjust state law that defies federal law. 
     You may fire me, you may jail me, and you may kill me. But 
     like Esther, if I perish, let me perish. Enough is enough!
       If you need somebody, I am available. Here am I, send me.
       Rosa Parks: It is not her passing, but in her living, the 
     timeliness of her actions, that bring us here today. It has 
     captured the attention of the world.

[[Page E2302]]

       I was in South Africa meeting with President Mandela last 
     week when the news broke. He acknowledged her impact and 
     sends his condolences. Apartheid ended in 1954 in North 
     America. And in South Africa in 1994. He understands the 
     connections.
       An NAACP freedom fighter, she offered her body as a living 
     sacrifice. She embodied the hope, the longing and the anguish 
     of three centuries of prayers. Her light in darkness 
     illuminated the path of the majestic leadership of Dr. Martin 
     Luther King, Jr. Together they were part of a team. A season. 
     That changed the course of America and world history for the 
     better. Ms. Parks was in the historical rocking chair between 
     the legal triumphs of Thurgood Marshall and the prophetic 
     utterance of Dr. King.
       It is our burden to put her in context of our struggle. And 
     not allow wolves in sheep's clothing to mis-interpret her 
     legacy, or our struggle.
       So when children ask of us, who was Rosa Parks? We shall 
     tell them how she helped get us across the rough waters.
       Why was she arrested? Is it relevant today? Or is this some 
     sentimental journey that we are on, with all of these 
     services and celebrations.
       She was arrested for defying State's rights laws--
     segregation--a hangover from the Confederacy. The South would 
     not honor the dream of a more perfect union. And the red 
     states still resist.
       The relevance of her living legacy is no sentimental 
     journey.
       So today, as the courts are stacked with States' rights 
     judges, and New Orleans' people float face down in the 
     waters, and civil rights are suspended, prevailing wages 
     suspended, affirmative action suspended, environmental laws 
     suspended, veterans preferences suspended . . .
       As FEMA will not give the addresses of the people exiled in 
     41 states. The addresses that will allow the State Board of 
     Elections to communicate with them so they might vote in 
     February. New Orleans is being de-populated with its people 
     stranded in exile. While Louisiana is being demographically 
     re-configured.
       Is this struggle relevant today or is this service a 
     sentimental journey?
       For our sister beloved Rosa, we must adore, admire and love 
     her. But we must not romanticize her mission. Hers is an act 
     of defiance, challenging the prevailing right wing political, 
     legal and religious order. She challenged state's rights in 
     the heart of the Confederacy.
       Her mission was to even the playing field, to afford all 
     Americans equal protection under the law, to gain and defend 
     civil rights--she sought a more perfect union.
       Many of her former adversaries have changed stripes or 
     parties, but not their anti-civil rights, anti-labor, anti-
     gender equality, and anti-poor agenda.
       To be on her freedom train requires the courage and the 
     vision to defy unjust law, take the risk and live with the 
     consequences.
       After 58 years of legal racist segregationist apartheid 
     law, upon continuous charges by the NAACP, led by Thurgood 
     Marshall, Constance Baker Motley, Charles Hamilton Houston, 
     Dr. John Hope Franklin, Dr. Kenneth Clark, the court reversed 
     itself from the 1896 apartheid decision which succeeded 
     slavery.
       May 17, 1954 was the biggest legal victory we had known 
     since the abolishment of slavery in 1865 and the broken 
     promises of 1877 and the end of reconstruction. But it had no 
     immediate impact on the ground. States continued to defy the 
     law and vilify the court as legislating and engineering 
     change and of not being ``strict conservative 
     constructionists.''
       Racial segregation remained in our schools, transportation, 
     trains, public housing, work place, voting. We lived without 
     the umbrella of protection of the law.
       Emmett Till was lynched, August 28, 1955, (eight years to 
     the day before the March on Washington, 1963). The lynch mob 
     was not prosecuted and the FBI did not investigate.
       His mother brought his bloodied, watermarked body back to 
     Chicago. 100,000 people demonstrated passed his body . . . 
     afterwards they were never the same.
       Jet and the Black Press told his story. There was an 
     emotional uprising.
       I once asked Ms. Rosa Parks, why did she not go to the back 
     of the bus, given the risks?
       She said I thought about Emmett Till and I could not go 
     back. She said, ``My legs and feet were not tired, that is a 
     stereotype, and I felt violated. I paid the same fare as 
     others, I was not going back.'' She stood with Emmett Till's 
     mother until the very end, reaffirming that kindship.
       Her dominant feature was not that she was a seamstress; she 
     was not arrested for sewing. She was a dignified, resisting 
     freedom fighter. An NAACP officer at a time when the NAACP 
     was banished from most parts of the south. Most teachers 
     could not join and keep their jobs.
       The states defied federal law, and she defied the state 
     law. She took the test, paid the price and the law failed. 
     She was arrested for defiant behavior. She went counter-
     culture. She resented the sign above the drivers head that 
     read, ``colored seat from the rear, whites from the front. 
     Violators will be prosecuted.''
       She chose with resolve and courage to fearlessly face the 
     option of being fired, jailed or killed to test the law, 
     December 1, 1955.
       An immediate after effect was the emergence of Rev. Dr. 
     Martin Luther King, Jr. A one year boycott, his house 
     bombed--they were threatened. She won the legal case after 13 
     months. It took 10 years of testing to get from the back of 
     the bus to the right to vote.
       Sitting down, we hear over and over again was a simple act 
     by a dignified woman. The act was simple, but the reaction 
     was violent, relentless, led by the State. Arrests, loss of 
     jobs, death threats. Governors blocking school doors, state 
     terror. And the resistance of her challenge for a more 
     perfect union is still under attack by the devotees of 
     State's rights, undermining a more perfect union for all 
     Americans.
       It was the first of many courageous tests: 1957, Daisy 
     Bates and the Little Rock Nine; the sit-in's of the 1960's; 
     the assassination of Medgar Evars and others; the killing of 
     Jimmie Lee Jackson that triggererd the Selma March; the 
     killings of Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney; The Birmingham 
     bombings; the march from Selma to Montgomery to end the 
     reign of legal state sponsored terror.
       There was a long bloody road ahead after December 1, 1955. 
     Of course, by extension today, abandoned cities, flourishing 
     suburbs, second class schools and first class jails. Three 
     strikes and you're out . . . even if you don't have a bat, 
     rather than four balls and you're on, because we really 
     intend to leave no child behind.
       We, with a narrow view, say Rosa Parks would not get up and 
     let the white man have her seat. It was not about ``A'' black 
     woman, and ``A'' white man. It was a dilemma of all blacks 
     and all whites. Victims of a system with all losers.
       The white bus driver would not drive off, the white police 
     arrested her, but they were all victims of racist, state's 
     rights law as well. They were following the legal, political, 
     religious edict of their day.
       She was following the moral law. She chose Calvary over 
     convenience.
       The white rider, out of cultural expectation and the law, 
     had a right to ask her to get up. The bus driver had a legal 
     obligation to demand that she move, or the bus would go no 
     further. The police had a legal obligation to arrest her.
       Those men must now feel awful, and their children ashamed. 
     History has condemned them. But their political leaders 
     placed them there.
       If they had not done their jobs, they would have lost their 
     jobs, and if she had gotten up, she would have lost her 
     dignity.
       The legal changes of 64' and 65' allowed both to have 
     dignity and decency.
       Now Alabama and Auburn can play black and white together. 
     We can choose uniform color over skin color in that game, 
     because the new law protects our shared dignity.
       Unfortunately 50 years later many still are trapped in the 
     system that chooses racial insecurity and cultural identity 
     over their economic interests and life options.
       If Rosa Parks were not successful, blacks would have 
     remained at the back of the bus and in a ditch. Southern 
     whites would have remained in the ditch with us. No 
     southerner could have gone to the White House from the south, 
     because of the stigma, just as no white South African could 
     leave South Africa without stigma.
       Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Vice President 
     Gore, President Bush, all owe their presidencies to a new 
     freed South, not hampered by racial stigma.
       Her act helped to free the whole south.
       Changing the laws and the culture did not take place 
     automatically or inevitably. It took demonstrations, 
     sacrifice and martyrs. But now with affirmative action and 
     Pell Grant and no more political mileage for governors 
     blocking school doors, we can sit in the front of buses, 
     class rooms, live in a neighborhood of our choice.
       Auburn could be number 1 last year. Alabama could be 
     undefeated this year and not face the predicament that Bear 
     Bryant faced playing USC and Nebraska without the best talent 
     in the State, and being humiliated by Sam Cunningham of USC 
     and Johnny Rogers of Nebraska.
       Oh what a morning Rosa Parks ushered in. There are those 
     who will honor her during this season, but who will seek to 
     reverse the course she took and not enforce the laws for 
     which she was arrested and struggled. She is their trophy but 
     she is our morning star. Our 1955 liberation Christmas 
     present. Oh what a morning this noble woman has helped to 
     usher in.
       This is a time to mourn and celebrate, where we must watch 
     as well as pray. For those on the Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, 
     Schwerner, Goodman Chaney, A. Phillip Randolph, Constance 
     Baker Motley, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King side of 
     history, we must be a ware of wolves in sheep's clothing who 
     try unrelentingly to defeat her purpose.
       While we have gone from the back of the bus in Montgomery, 
     burnished in our memory is the back of the rescue in New 
     Orleans.
       Like Esther, you counted the costs, took the risks and paid 
     the price. But our God offered you a comfort level ultimately 
     that defied your enemies and surpasses our understanding.
       Sister Rosa, you are our eagle bird of hope, a gift sent 
     from up above. Like the eagle--a bird of strength. and power 
     and resolve--you looked in the noon day sun and didn't 
     flinch. You looked at the little ones whose wings were less 
     strong and not as long. You inspired us out of our fears, and 
     allowed a rebirth of hope. You stirred your nest, and gave us 
     comfort and protection. You showed us how to fly.

[[Page E2303]]

       Fly fearlessly, no matter the weather. When we failed in 
     our efforts, God allowed you to be close enough and live long 
     enough to pick us up again.
       We know we fall down sometimes. We got back up again. Again 
     and again. Because you reminded us nothing is too hard for 
     God. You showed us the power of right over might, the power 
     of moral authority, the power stronger than guns and wealth, 
     just by being available to do God's will.
       You have been the wind beneath our wings. The Lord promised 
     that they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; 
     they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run 
     and not be weary; they shall walk and not feint.
       The writer promised this morning this great morning, one 
     glad morning, we can fly away. You are faithful over a few 
     things. Now He has called you up higher. Keep looking up to 
     those stars, in their silver sockets of glory, to that place 
     in the sky.
       Now, Mother Eagle, God today has called you back to the big 
     nest in the sky. This morning, Sweet Angel, take your rest, 
     take your rest. Take your heavenly flight. You made your 
     reservations. You prepaid your ticket. Now you can sit where 
     you choose to sit. You have a reserved seat at the welcome 
     table. When you get tired of sitting, you can just walk 
     around heaven all day.
       By the way, stop by and give Dr. King our highest regards. 
     Tell Fannie Lou Hamer, howdy. Pluck those bullets out of 
     Medgar Evars' back. Tell Emmett Till what he meant to you. 
     Sit down with Daisy Bates.
       Stop by and see Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney.
       By the way, thank John Johnson for telling our story. Tell 
     Mahalia. We are all moving up a little higher. And don't 
     forget to tell Rev. C.L. Franklin thanks for teaching us how 
     eagles stir their nests.
       Make room for us. It won't be long now. We are too close to 
     turn around now. We've wept bitter tears, but joy keeps 
     coming. Sit where you want to now. There will be no arresting 
     officers. No signs of disrespect. No more handcuffs. We thank 
     you for your hope. We thank you for your healing. We thank 
     you for being available. Good night, Sweet Angel. We will see 
     you in the morning. You served us well. You've done God's 
     will.

                          ____________________