[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 24194]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          HONORING ROSA PARKS

  (Mr. WELLER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WELLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join my colleagues and this 
Nation in honoring the passing of American civil rights hero Rosa 
Parks.
  Looking back from our modern vantage point, it is difficult to 
imagine that an individual could exhibit so much courage and inspire 
thousands to rise up in protest merely through an act so simple as 
refusing to give up her seat on a bus.
  In many ways this entire country is fortunate that a white man 
looking for a place to sit on that bus on that particular day set his 
sights on Mrs. Parks and not someone else. A middle-aged African 
American woman, clearly tired after a long day's work, how could anyone 
have known that she would have the strength of spirit to look up that 
fateful day in 1965 and essentially say enough is enough? For if the 
exhausted and fed-up seamstress had not been among the African 
Americans asked to move, if someone else had asked and complied, there 
may not have been that seminal event which would crystallize an entire 
movement.
  One might say that Mrs. Parks' simple act of bravery preceded and, in 
fact, set in motion the many acts of courage of another civil rights 
hero, Dr. Martin Luther King.
  When a conference of black Baptist ministers met to discuss how to 
react to Mrs. Parks' arrest, they elected a young Dr. King as their 
president. When they decided that the strong and sympathetic figure of 
Mrs. Parks had given them the impetus they needed to act, the modern 
civil rights movement was born.
  Thus came the very successful 380-day boycott of Montgomery buses and 
the famous lunch counter sit-ins. And ultimately, thus came the Supreme 
Court's decision which struck down the remaining segregation laws once 
and for all. It took Rosa Parks to help accomplish the goals of Abraham 
Lincoln to bring equality for all Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, it is just and right that schoolchildren in America have 
long been taught the name of Rosa Parks as that of one of America's 
foremost heroes. Even now that she has passed on, I have little doubt 
that she will continue to be properly recognized for all of her 
contributions to our Nation.

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