[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23611]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               ROSA PARKS

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I would just add to the gentleman from the 
State of Ohio that the State of Texas added 15,000 jobs last month.
  Mr. Speaker, when she sat down, society stood up and took notice. 
Rosa Parks, the name is synonymous with civil rights. Often referred to 
as the Mother of Civil Rights, Ms. Parks, with one small act of 
defiance, refusing to give up her bus seat, galvanized a generation of 
activists, including the young Reverend Martin Luther King, who then 
organized a 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system. Finally in 
November of 1956, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public 
transportation was unconstitutional.
  Mr. Speaker, Rosa Parks was then a 42-year-old seamstress, an active 
member of the National Organization for the Advancement of Colored 
People, and had worked as its adviser to its youth council. But it was 
on a city bus on December 1, 1955, when her seat was demanded and when 
history was made. When questioned why she did not vacate her seat that 
day, her answer was simple. She said, ``I felt I had a right to be 
treated as any other passenger. We had endured that kind of treatment 
for too long.''
  Mr. Speaker, Rosa Parks received many awards throughout her lifetime, 
including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996; and then in 1999, 
the Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to Ms. Parks. But Ms. Parks 
wanted people to remember what was most important, to understand the 
government, to understand their rights, and the Constitution.

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