[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 23880-23884]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      ROSA PARKS FEDERAL BUILDING

  Mr. KUHL of New York. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
pass the bill (H.R. 2967) to designate the Federal building located at 
333 Mt. Elliott Street in Detroit, Michigan, as the ``Rosa Parks 
Federal Building''.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 2967

       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''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Kuhl) and the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. 
Norton) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New York (Mr. Kuhl).


                             General Leave

  Mr. KUHL of New York. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend 
their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 2967.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from New York?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. KUHL of New York. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2967, introduced by Ms. Kilpatrick of Michigan, 
designates the Federal building located at 33 Mt. Elliott Street, 
Detroit, Michigan, as the ``Rosa Parks Federal Building.''
  Rosa Parks, who passed away on Monday, is most well known for her 
simple, yet heroic act of defiance. Fifty years ago she refused to give 
up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa Parks was 
arrested, lost her job, and received numerous death threats for her 
actions. This simple act inspired further acts of civil disobedience 
and earned her the title of ``mother of the civil rights movement.''
  Rosa Parks' dedication to fight for social and economic justice 
continued well beyond that monumental day in 1955. As a Secretary for 
the NAACP, she helped organize civil rights cases. She worked in the 
antiapartheid movement, and established the Rosa and Raymond Parks 
Institute for Self-Development in her adopted hometown of Detroit, 
Michigan. She spent the remainder of her life fighting against all 
forms of discrimination.
  In 1999, Rosa Parks was named one of the 20 most influential and 
iconic figures of the 20th century by Time Magazine. She also received 
numerous awards for her contributions to the civil rights movement, 
including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and also the Congressional 
Gold Medal.
  While Rosa Parks has already received significant recognition for her 
life's work, I believe that this is a fitting honor to a woman whose 
actions helped change our society for the better. I support this 
legislation, and I encourage my colleagues to do the same.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. 
For this side I will be introducing the bill, and after I make an 
introductory statement, and the next time you go to our side, I want my 
colleagues to hear from the gentlewoman who is responsible for this 
bill, Ms. Kilpatrick, who has indicated she wants me to introduce it.
  I want to thank her for this bill to designate the Federal Building, 
which is located at 333 Mt. Elliott Street in Detroit, Michigan, as the 
Rosa Parks Federal Building, and I want to thank her for really her 
quite extraordinary diligence in making sure that this bill came to the 
floor.
  I want to say that this bill happens to come to the floor a few days 
after the death of Rosa Parks, but who is certainly not responsible for 
the tardiness of this bill reaching the floor is Ms. Kilpatrick. For 
months she has been talking to me as the ranking member of the 
subcommittee. For about the same length of time she has been talking 
with our ranking member Mr. Oberstar. I am sure nobody on our committee 
meant to hold this bill up, but the truth is that we very much desired 
for this bill to come to the floor before Rosa Parks died. We knew she 
was elderly. We are very grateful, however, to the majority for 
allowing this bill to come forward now in advance of the funeral so 
that Ms. Kilpatrick, who has carried this bill for so long, can go home 
to say the Congress has approved what I know Members on both sides 
would very much want to approve.
  We all know the story of that December evening in 1955 when a 42-
year-old black woman riding a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to 
give up her seat at the demand of a white male passenger. This simple 
gesture, it was indeed more than a gesture; it was an act, and an 
action that our country will never forget, led to the disintegration of 
institutionalized segregation in much of the South and ushered in a new 
era now known as the civil rights era of our country.
  Characteristically, Ms. Parks always played down her courageous act. 
Her strength of character and quiet, but determined sense of justice 
changed our country, however. Montgomery's segregation laws were very 
complex and deeply humiliating. For example, blacks were required to 
pay their fare to the driver and then get off the bus and reenter 
through the rear door. If the white section was full, blacks were 
required to give up their seats altogether, no matter what their age, 
and no matter what their infirmity, and move to the back of the bus.
  Rosa Parks was very familiar with these humiliations; however, she 
was a self-educated, early activist with her own local NAACP, her time 
at the Highland School in Tennessee, but never particularly intending 
at that moment to engage in an act of civil disobedience. She simply 
was ready when the moment of humiliation came.

[[Page 23881]]

For her boldness, she was arrested and found guilty of disorderly 
conduct.
  This action led to the famous Montgomery bus boycott that lasted over 
a year and, ultimately, to the Supreme Court decision that banned 
segregation on the city's public transportation systems, and, Mr. 
Speaker, therefore, on all public transportation throughout the United 
States. It is impossible to overstate the impact of her act of gentle 
defiance.
  Rosa Parks' story has now become legendary in American history. I am 
honored to support this bill. It is a most fitting way to respect her 
life and to acknowledge her lifelong contributions to equality and 
justice for all Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I yield such time as she 
may consume to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick), the 
sponsor of this bill, who is responsible for its emergence on the floor 
today.

                              {time}  1800

  Ms. KILPATRICK of Michigan. Thank you, America, for believing in a 
greater country. I want to thank the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. 
Oberstar), ranking member of our committee, and certainly Chairman 
Young. I want to thank the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia 
(Ms. Norton), as well as the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster) 
and the entire House of Representatives for bringing this bill to the 
floor at this time.
  Rosa Parks lived in my district for almost 50 years. I met her as a 
young women of 19 years old, after leaving Montgomery, Alabama and 
coming to Detroit. She lived in my district even two nights ago when 
she passed, and I was honored when the family called me and asked me to 
come with them the night of her death.
  The building that we are naming in honor of Mrs. Rosa Parks is the 
Federal building in Detroit that houses our Immigration and Homeland 
Security Department. It will soon be called the Rosa Parks Federal 
Building. What a tribute to a young woman who dedicated her life, her 
very soul, her self-respect to building a better, stronger America for 
all of its people.
  Mrs. Parks was one who did not like a lot of fanfare. She did what 
she had to do, and she spent her life working with the youth of 
America, letting them know that they can be and do what they want to be 
and do, that with the spirit of God they can be that power that we must 
have in our country. It was young people that she dedicated her life 
to.
  As we name this building the Rosa Parks Federal Building on a very 
busy thoroughfare in the city of Detroit that goes east and west 
through many communities, it is with honor that I stand here as a 
sponsor. I want to thank our entire Michigan delegation, both all the 
Republicans and all the Democrats, who signed on as cosponsors. It is a 
glorious occasion.
  Before I take my seat, I want to talk about the Rosa and Raymond 
Parks Institute for Self Development, her foundation that she has had 
over 20 years that again encourages young people, teaches young people, 
educates them about the civil rights movement, about math, science and 
all that goes with that, as well as the struggle for justice and all 
that goes with that.
  I thank the Members of the House of Representatives as we pass this 
tonight. The Senate has also acted today. On December 1, 1955, 50 years 
ago this December 1, Mrs. Rosa Parks sat down so that we might stand 
up. Our country is better for it, and the world is better for Mrs. Rosa 
Parks. The Rosa Parks Federal Building in Detroit will stand as a 
witness to her sacrifice, her self-respect, and her courage.
  I would ask all my colleagues to support Mrs. Rosa Parks as we soon 
lay her to rest in the country that she helped to make great.
  H.R. 2967 seeks to honor Mrs. Rosa Parks, an iconic figure of the 
civil rights movement by naming the Federal Building at 333 Mt. Elliott 
Street at E. Jefferson in Detroit, MI, after Rosa Louise Parks.
  H.R. 2967 currently has 22 cosponsors including the entire Michigan 
delegation.
  Rosa Parks was a seamstress and the secretary of the local NAACP. 
Mrs. Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Al. bus in 
December 1955. She was arrested and fined for violating a city 
ordinance. Her defiance began a movement that ended legal segregation 
in America and made her an inspiration to people everywhere.
  The bus incident led to the formation of the Montgomery Improvement 
Association. The association called for a boycott against the city-
owned bus company. Black people citywide boycotted the bus system for 
more than a year. As a result of the boycott and the actions of Rosa 
Parks, the Supreme Court eventually outlawed racial segregation on 
public transportation.
  December 1, 2005 marks the 50th anniversary of Mrs. Rosa Parks's 
arrest for refusing to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery, Al.
  It is the courage, dignity, and determination that Mrs. Parks 
exemplified that allow most historians to credit her with beginning the 
modern day civil rights movement.
  In 1957, Mrs. Parks and her husband Raymond moved to Detroit.
  She continued her seamstress career and later served on the staff of 
Congressman John Conyers in various administrative jobs for 23 years 
and retired in 1988 at the age of 75.
  After the death of her husband, she founded the Rosa and Raymond 
Parks Institute for Self Development. The Institute sponsors leadership 
programs for youth, including an annual summer program for teenagers 
called Pathways to Freedom.
  The Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development offers 
educational programs for young people including two signature programs: 
first, Pathways to Freedom, a 21-day program that introduces students 
to the Underground Railroad and the civil rights movement with a 
freedom ride across the United States and Canada, tracing the 
underground railroad into civil rights; and second, Learning Centers 
and Senior Citizens, a program that partners young people with senior 
citizens where the young help the senior citizens develop their 
computer skills and senior citizens mentor the young;


                                 Honors

  Rosa Parks has been honored for her dedication and work with such 
recognitions as: the NAACP's Spingarn Medal in 1979; The Martin Luther 
King, Jr., Nonviolent Peace Prize in 1980; The Presidential Medal of 
Freedom in 1996; and The Congressional Gold Medal in 1999. Time 
magazine also named Rosa Louise Parks as one of the ``100 most 
influential people of the 20th century.'' The Henry Ford Museum in 
Michigan bought and exhibited the bus on which she was arrested, and 
the Rosa Parks Library and Museum opened in Montgomery in 2000.


                                 legacy

  Mrs. Parks passed away on Monday at the age of 92 in Detroit. Rosa 
Parks' legacy is a symbol of hope and inspiration for all. We can all 
proudly stand on the shoulders of this great giant.
  Rosa Parks' work helped change history. Her contributions to the 
civil rights movement brought this country a step closer to equality. 
Her devotion to the civil rights movement and the city of Detroit will 
always be remembered.
  People who make meaningful contributions to society should be 
recognized and honored. Naming the Federal Building at 333 Mt. Elliott 
Street at E. Jefferson after Mrs. Rosa Parks will remind everyone who 
drives by or visits the building of the contribution she made for civil 
rights.
  The life of Rosa Parks shows that one person can make a difference.


                         Quotes from Rosa Parks

  Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in 
others
  I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom 
and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.
  Mr. KUHL of New York. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from 
Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar), the ranking member who worked so hard on 
behalf of this bill.
  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from the District 
of Columbia (Ms. Norton) for yielding, and I join in her commendation 
and great appreciation to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. 
Kilpatrick) for championing this legislation over so many weeks and 
months. I join in their regret that we could not have done this in time 
for Rosa Parks to know that the Nation had recognized her service to 
equality by naming a Federal courthouse, a Federal building, in her 
honor.
  A headline in The Washington Post today summed it up, in words that 
Ms.

[[Page 23882]]

Kilpatrick used herself, summed up the contribution of Rosa Parks: she 
sat down and we stood up. America did stand up, proud and tall, after 
this act of righteousness in defiance of a hateful symbol of division 
in America, segregation on America's buses.
  The discussion that the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia had 
on the NewsHour just last night, with the Reverend Joseph Lowery of the 
Southern Christian Leadership Council, recalling their association with 
Rosa Parks, and their great respect for this woman, told of the 
humility and simplicity but steadfastness of this extraordinary woman.
  I recall it rightly, and the gentlewoman from the District of 
Columbia will verify, it was Reverend Lowery who told the story of Rosa 
Parks making a wedding gift to his daughter, a check, then of a 
considerable amount, $25. Three years later, Reverend Lowery's daughter 
met Rosa Parks, who said to her, why did you not cash my check? You 
have messed up my accounting. The daughter replied, oh, I would never 
cash that check. I framed it. This is a treasure. She said no, young 
lady, you cash that check.
  She did not want to be acknowledged and recognized and bowed to as an 
icon, which she certainly is. She continued a very simple, direct life-
style. That is the kind of person that we should respect and honor. It 
is hard for many of us in northern tier States who have not experience 
firsthand the pain of segregation, to understand not only the symbolic 
significance, but the real courage it took to do this, to stand against 
this kind of discrimination.
  I did not understand it fully until I traveled to New Orleans with my 
wife, who is from New Orleans, rode on the St. Charles street car line, 
the oldest public transit system in America. She showed me the place on 
the street cars where the sign was placed, ``no colored ahead of this 
line.'' No colored ahead of this line. The holder is still in place.
  She told me how appalled she was as a child to see white people come 
and move that device just a little further back so there could be more 
room for white people, how hateful it was. That no longer exists. But 
this vestige of the past remains, hopefully as a reminder to us that it 
should never occur again in America.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2967, a bill to 
designate the Federal building located at 333 Mt. Elliott Street, in 
Detroit, Michigan, as the ``Rosa Parks Federal Building.''
  Rosa Parks is known as the ``mother of the civil rights movement.'' 
With one single act of defiance--when she refused to give up her seat 
on the Cleveland Avenue bus in Montgomery, Alabama--she galvanized a 
Nation and changed the course of history. On December 1, 1955, Mrs. 
Parks was sitting in the middle rows of the bus with three other black 
riders. The bus driver demanded that all four give up their seats so 
that a single white man could sit. Three of the riders complied. Mrs. 
Parks remained seated.
  It is important to keep in mind that what is often remembered as a 
quiet act of civil disobedience took tremendous personal courage. 
Blacks at that time had been arrested, and even beaten or killed, for 
refusing to follow the orders of bus drivers. Rosa Parks was arrested, 
jailed, and fined $14.
  As Mrs. Parks herself has said in the years following that pivotal 
moment, she hadn't planned on taking a stand that day. She hadn't 
planned on becoming the face of the injustices of segregation. She had 
simply had enough. She was tired of being treated like a second-class 
citizen. She had had enough.
  Mrs. Parks' act of courage sparked the civil rights movement. A 
boycott of the public buses was organized for Monday, December 5, the 
day of Mrs. Parks' trial. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., then a 
young preacher who was only 26 years old, organized the boycott. The 
boycott lasted 381 days, ending only after the Supreme Court outlawed 
segregation on buses. It captured the attention of the Nation and 
forced people to confront the inequalities that were then commonplace. 
The civil rights movement ultimately led to the passage of the landmark 
Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned racial discrimination in public 
accommodations, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
  Rosa Parks is an American icon. By refusing to give up her seat on 
that Montgomery bus, she changed the course of history. This honor is 
long overdue.
  Mr. Speaker, Rosa Parks died on Monday. She was 92. I'm only sorry 
that we could not have passed this bill while Mrs. Parks was still 
alive. Although she suffered from dementia in her later years, I 
believe that she would have understood and appreciated such recognition 
from the United States Congress.

  The strength and presence of a Federal building perfectly captures 
the character and personality of this icon of the civil rights 
movement. It is fitting and just that her life and public 
accomplishments are acknowledged with this designation.
  I strongly support H.R. 2967 and urge its passage.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
Indiana (Ms. Carson).
  Ms. CARSON. Mr. Speaker, my heartfelt congratulation to the Delegate 
from the District of Columbia. I rise to pay homage to the honorable 
Rosa Parks, a woman who I honored in this Chamber when I first came to 
Congress with a resolution creating the Congressional Gold Medal for 
Mrs. Rosa Parks and a big ceremony that was held in the rotunda.
  Throughout that ceremony, she retained a great deal of humility and 
appreciation and said to me, I do not deserve this medal for myself, 
but I deserve it as it is necessary for all the people of the United 
States to understand the struggle, the fact that while I sat there, it 
brought attention to the United States that even though we had written 
years ago, liberty and justice for all people, it still had not come 
through to fruition.
  My heart hurt tonight when you passed the legislation that would deny 
not-for-profits the right to register voters. That was the most 
insidious inclusion in the housing bill that I have ever seen in all 
the week that we celebrate the life of Rosa Parks, who strove hard for 
voting rights and voting registration, that we would take it away from 
them, especially during this time of year.
  Rosa Parks is very near and dear to me. She represents what many of 
our beautiful people of color represent in the United States of 
America. I would hope that if we are sincere about recognizing the life 
and the work of a woman who lived not just because, but lived for a 
cause, one of which was voter registration and voting opportunities for 
all people, that we would withdraw that insidious part of that bill 
that denies not-for-profits to register voters in a nonprofit, 
nonpartisan way to enable them to be able to vote in elections.
  That is so important. We do it for places across the waters, and 
there is no better way that we can salute Mrs. Parks than to allow free 
and open registration for people in the United States of America. I 
would encourage that we do that. I thank the Delegate from the District 
of Columbia for allowing me the opportunity to take a little part of 
this celebration of a Federal building in Detroit to express my 
sentiments and respect for a woman that I loved dearly and appreciate 
the long life that God granted to her.
  Today we pause to honor the life and legacy of Mrs. Rosa Parks, the 
Mother of America's Civil Rights Movement.
  It was on a bitterly cold day in December 1955 when an unknown 
seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama forever changed the course of 
American history. In the face of vicious racism and entrenched 
segregation, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus 
seat to a white passenger.
  Her quiet courage inspired a 381-day bus boycott that brought the 
issue of legal segregation into the national consciousness and launched 
the beginning of the modern civil rights movement in America.
  Today, her simple act of defiance continues to symbolize the power of 
non-violent protest.
  Rosa Parks' actions on that bus a half-century ago marked only the 
beginning of what became a lifelong fight for equal rights. Along with 
her husband Raymond, she was an active member of the NAACP, serving 
first as secretary and later as adviser to the NAACP youth council. For 
over 20 years she faithfully served the people of Detroit on the staff 
of my colleague, Congressman John Conyers. In 1987 she established a 
training school for Detroit teenagers known as the Rosa and Raymond 
Parks Institute for Self-Development. The Institute is noted for 
developing a special program for young people age 11-18 called

[[Page 23883]]

Pathways to Freedom. Children in the program travel across the country 
tracing the Underground Railroad, visiting the scenes of critical 
events in the civil rights movement, tracing their heritage, and 
learning aspects of America's history.
  Five years ago I had the privilege of introducing legislation that 
authorized President Clinton to award Rosa Parks the Congressional Gold 
Medal of Honor. Standing in the Capitol Rotunda as such an 
extraordinary woman received the Nation's highest civilian award was 
one of my greatest honors as a Member of Congress, and as an American. 
In keeping with her humble manner and unerring devotion to justice, 
Mrs. Parks used the occasion to call on the Nation's youth to continue 
her struggle until all people have equal rights.
  Rosa Parks was an American hero. While we honor her life here in 
Congress today, may we honor her legacy by always remembering that 
justice is a right we must never take for granted.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, all of us would like to claim 
a personal relationship with Rosa Parks. I thank the gentlewoman from 
Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick) for her leadership on the naming of this 
building, the timing and the ability for the legislation to make its 
way to the floor at this time to allow us to share our thoughts. I 
thank the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) for his guiding hand, 
and certainly the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. 
Norton) as well, not only for her leadership, but also for the 
knowledge that she gives to this issue.
  I started by saying that we all would have liked to have had a 
personal relationship, but at least we can say that we had the 
opportunity to meet Rosa Parks. As we met her, we stood in awe as we 
have heard the words on the floor tonight, because, in fact, although 
she was a humble spirit, she was and continues to be larger than life. 
As we proceed to mourn her this weekend and through the coming months 
and weeks, there will be opportunities to name stamps after her and to 
seek ways of measuring the contributions that she made to America.
  I ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join us in the 
celebration. Let us not diminish the celebration of Rosa Parks and the 
role that she played in American history by any of the partisan 
politics that may take place. We are doing too much. Is this not 
enough? Because as the story is told, as we have already evidenced, she 
described herself as a simple seamstress. We realize that when she did 
sit down on that bus and she was arrested, there was no raising of the 
voice. There was a calmness.
  She simply told the bus driver she was not moving. I think the 
interesting thing for those of us who are trained as lawyers, she did 
not ask for her lawyer, but she asked for her pastor, Martin Luther 
King, a pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. It symbolized the 
kind of woman that she was. But it also symbolized the passion that she 
had for civil rights and freedom in the NAACP and the fact that she 
wanted to create a movement, and a movement she created. But it was not 
just a movement. It was a thunderous sound across America that stood up 
and said no to the divisiveness and the horrific-ness of segregation 
and told America once and for all, as the only way that a seamstress 
with a mild manner could say, but like a mother, she said, you will not 
do this. You have been naughty, and now is the time to stop.
  For that I will be ever grateful, for I would not have been a 
graduate of an institution that I went to that was a majority 
institution. I would not have been able to go to law school had it not 
been for the courage of Rosa Parks, would not have been able to come 
out of the place where I lived, seen a greater day and a better 
opportunity, because we had, at that time, no thoughts of rising to the 
level of where we are today.
  So, Rosa Parks, may you rest in peace. We thank you for in that 
simple manner, quiet demeanor, but yet courageous stand, a big heart, a 
loving heart, be able to set the tone.
  As I close, let me join by saying, let us recommit ourselves to be a 
country that believes in one person, one vote, no barriers or 
obstructions to voting. No long lines, no bad balloting, no miscounts. 
No false registration. Let us do that in the name of Rosa Parks, and 
may she rest in peace.

                              {time}  1815

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that time for debate 
be extended for an additional 10 minutes to be equally divided between 
both sides. This is a very important matter for the entire Nation. We 
are honoring a heroine, a treasure.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Poe). Is there objection to the request 
of the gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Mrs. Jones).
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the other side 
for agreeing to the unanimous consent, and I would like to thank my 
colleagues for giving me this opportunity.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in celebration of the life of a great 
heroine of the civil rights movement, Rosa Parks, a woman who dared to 
make a difference.
  As a child I traveled to Alabama. My mother was from Chilton County. 
I experienced the segregated South. I rode in the back of the bus. I 
used a colored restroom, and I went in the back doors. Thank God for 
Rosa Parks.
  I remember one day getting on a bus between Clinton and Birmingham, 
and the bus driver would not take my bag and put it on the bus. And I 
said, Sir, this bus ain't going nowhere unless you put my bag on. And 
an older woman on the bus said, Girl, you better get on this bus and 
sit down. It is a long ride between Clinton, Alabama, and Birmingham.
  There are few in history of this country that had the courage to 
stand up to the adversity with the dignity and strength of Rosa Parks. 
Her brave action in 1955 began a movement that would change the face of 
the Nation. Oftentimes history has said that her reason for refusing to 
get up was because her feet hurt. The truth is she was tired, tired of 
enduring injustices and tired of being a second class citizen. And as 
Fannie Lou Hamer said, ``Sick and tired of being sick and tired.'' So 
she decided to make a difference.
  Rosa Parks' legacy of courage in the struggle for justice for African 
Americans in this country will be an inspiration for generations to 
come. I offer my sincere condolences to her family and friends at this 
time.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in celebration of the life of a great 
heroine of the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks. A woman who dared to 
make a difference.
  As a child I traveled to Alabama and experienced the segregated 
South. I rode in the back of the bus, I used the colored restroom and I 
went into the back doors.
  I remember riding the bus between Clanton and Birmingham and the bus 
driver refused to put my bag on. I told him the bus wasn't going 
anywhere until he put my bag on. An older woman said: ``Girl get on 
this bus, it's a long ride between Clanton and Birmingham.''
  Thank God for Rosa Parks.
  There are few in the history of this country who have had the courage 
to stand up to adversity with the dignity and strength of Rosa Parks. 
Her brave action in 1955, refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, 
Alabama bus to a white man, began a movement that would change the face 
of this Nation forever.
  Oftentimes history has said that her reason for refusing to give up 
her seat was because her feet hurt, but that was not the case. The 
truth is, she was tired. Tired of enduring the injustices of the 
segregated South. Tired of being treated as a second-class citizen or 
as Fannie Lou Hamer would say, ``sick and tired of being sick and 
tired.'' So she decided to make a difference that day in Alabama.
  Rosa Parks' legacy of courage in the struggle for justice for African 
Americans in this country will be an inspiration for generations to 
come. I offer my sincere condolences to her family and friends during 
this time.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Lantos).
  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I view American history as a long process of 
closing the hypocrisy gap. When we first heard the words ``all men are 
created equal,'' they certainly were not equal, and women were not even 
mentioned. And many of the people in that

[[Page 23884]]

great generation of the Founding Fathers themselves owned slaves.
  This long and painful process of closing the hypocrisy gap has been 
closed to a large extent because of the courage, the determination, the 
perseverance of giants like the one we are honoring today.
  Rosa Parks is a national treasure. She has reeducated all of us in 
the value that we, in fact, are all created equal, men and women, 
people of all faiths, people of all pigmentation. This is a message 
that needs to be sent over and over again, and I am proud that this 
House this evening again reminds all of us that the hypocrisy gap is 
not yet fully closed. We still have some distance to go. But Rosa Parks 
is among those giants who closed that gap in large measure, and for 
that we are eternally grateful.
  Mr. KUHL of New York. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman 
from California (Mr. Rohrabacher).
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this motion. I 
think it is important for conservatives and Republicans to speak up at 
this moment because they did not speak up back in the 1950s when they 
should have. I think that this is a fitting moment for this 
conservative to offer his apology to all those who were active with 
Rosa Parks in the civil rights movement for not being as supportive as 
I should have been as well as other conservatives who I know.
  At that time many conservatives were blinded by the stupidity of the 
arguments presented to us called ``States rights,'' which was a bunch 
of baloney, and we know that now. We know that the people who really 
were offering that argument, many of them had evil hearts and sinful 
hearts, and that they hate their fellow human beings and were trying to 
just oppose the efforts to perfect our country and to make it what our 
Founding Fathers and Mothers dreamed it would be, a land of liberty and 
justice for all.
  Rosa Parks and the other activists in the civil rights movement at 
that time were doing their part to try to make our country better, to 
try to live up to its ideals. So as we name this Federal building, as 
we talk about this tonight and honor this great lady, I think it is 
fitting for those Republican conservatives to realize we did not do 
what was right back then. We recognize it, and we will make sure to do 
what is right in the future.
  I thank the people who have spoken today. I thank the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Lantos) for reminding us of what hypocrisy really was, 
and that we really should not be hypocrites in our lives, and we should 
speak out strongly for wonderful people who gave their lives trying to 
make this country a better place.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Rohrabacher) for the graciousness of his remarks. I want to thank the 
gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick) for her great diligence in 
making sure that this bill would be introduced and come forward now.
  I want to say in closing that we are accustomed to revolutions being 
made by armies. We must appreciate what it meant for the opening shot, 
as it were, of the civil rights movement to have come from a 
gentlewoman who simply sat in her seat. After 400 years of slavery and 
discrimination, it might have been a bomb. It was instead an act which 
set the pattern of nonviolent resistance for the entire civil rights 
movement.
  Please understand that Rosa Parks acted at great personal risk to 
herself. We may forget what life was like in the 1950s. We all know 
this, that black men had been lynched for less, and yet she stood there 
not knowing what would happen after she was arrested.
  The remarks of the gentleman from California reminds us what she has 
done for our country, that essentially she has united our country with 
one message for all time, and that message does not know partisan 
lines. What she and the nonviolent revolution that she made that saved 
our country had done is to bring Republicans and Democrats to the same 
spot, to the understanding that equality under law is a basic American 
principle. We could celebrate that principle no better than by honoring 
the woman who set off the revolution with her gentle act, Rosa Parks.
  I thank my good friends from the other side for bringing this bill 
forward.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. KUHL of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from the 
District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) for her comments and the comments of 
all of our colleagues tonight on both sides of the aisle.
  I continue to support this bill, as I know everybody in this Chamber 
does.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Kuhl) that the House suspend the rules and 
pass the bill, H.R. 2967.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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