[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 24227-24237]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




AUTHORIZING THE REMAINS OF ROSA PARKS TO LIE IN HONOR IN THE ROTUNDA OF 
                              THE CAPITOL

  Mr. EHLERS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee 
on House Administration be discharged from further consideration of the 
Senate concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 61) authorizing the remains 
of Rosa Parks to lie in honor in the rotunda of the Capitol, and ask 
for its immediate consideration.
  The Clerk read the title of the Senate concurrent resolution.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Burgess). Is there objection to the 
request of the gentleman from Michigan?
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, reserving the right to object, I 
yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Ehlers) to explain the 
purpose of this concurrent resolution.
  Mr. EHLERS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of Senate Concurrent 
Resolution 61, a resolution authorizing the remains of Rosa Parks to 
lie in honor in the rotunda of the Capitol.
  Mr. Speaker, the Nation suffered a great loss on Monday with the 
passing of the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement, Mrs. Rosa Parks. 
She had no idea that on December 1, 1955, when she was jailed for 
refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, that she 
would inspire Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., to lead a 381-day 
boycott of that city's bus system, touching off the civil rights 
movement.
  Due to the national publicity of the boycott and her active 
involvement in the NAACP, she had difficulty finding employment in 
Alabama. Therefore, she and her husband, Raymond Parks, moved north to 
Detroit in 1957. In 1965 my colleague, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. 
Conyers), hired Mrs. Parks as a legislative aid. She worked for him 
until her retirement from congressional work in 1988 to focus all of

[[Page 24228]]

her attention on the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute For Self 
Development. This nonprofit organization is committed to working with 
Detroit's youth to build leadership skills and inspire them to continue 
her work on civil and human rights.
  I am especially pleased as a Representative from the State of 
Michigan to claim the honor of having her as a resident in our State, 
and also I am very pleased that we have a park in downtown Grand 
Rapids, Michigan, which is named for Rosa Parks and to signify her 
importance in our Nation.
  She was a remarkable person. Her courage and her tenacity sparked the 
civil rights movements which led to the reversal of some very 
repressive laws in this country and brought this Nation to its feet in 
favor of civil rights for all individuals no matter what race, gender, 
or color. I am very proud to be here to speak as a native of Michigan 
on her behalf.
  In 1999, the United States Congress honored Mrs. Parks in the rotunda 
of the Capitol by awarding her with the Congressional Gold Medal, our 
Nation's highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished 
achievements and contributions.
  Mr. Speaker, I think it is only fitting that we allow the Nation to 
pay its final respects to this great American by allowing her to lie in 
honor in the rotunda of the Capitol.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask for support of this resolution.
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, under my reservation I too rise 
in support of Senate Concurrent Resolution 61, authorizing the use of 
the U.S. Capitol rotunda for the remains of Rosa Louise Parks to lie in 
honor on October 30 and 31 of 2005.
  I stand as a very proud African American woman who stands on the 
shoulders of this great lady who was born Rosa Louise McCauley on 
February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She became a household name on 
December 1, 1955.
  After leaving her job as a seamstress, Rosa Parks boarded a racially 
segregated Montgomery, Alabama, bus for home and took a seat directly 
behind the white section. She was asked to yield her seat to a white 
man by a bus driver who had evicted her from a bus 12 years prior 
because she had refused to enter via the rear door after paying her 
fare. What happened next would change America forever.
  This humble, soft spoken woman refused to give up her seat and was 
arrested and taken to jail. While in jail, Rosa Parks did not call for 
her lawyer. She called for her minister. It was the Reverend Dr. Martin 
Luther King, Jr., who immediately came to her aid. The move kicked off 
the Montgomery bus boycott and the beginning of a civil rights 
movement.
  Because of Rosa Parks, the black citizens of Montgomery, Alabama, who 
comprised more than 70 percent of the bus company's business, refused 
to ride the bus until the laws were changed. The Montgomery bus boycott 
lasted for 381 days. When the case was taken to the United States 
Supreme Court, the Justices declared that segregation of the Montgomery 
buses was illegal and officially desegregated them on December 20, 
1956.
  Rosa Parks and her husband, Raymond, whom she married in 1931, were 
fired by their employers and harassed by angry whites. They moved to 
Detroit, Michigan, in 1957. It was then she went to work for our 
beloved and dear colleague, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers), 
and later formed the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute.
  Mr. Speaker, surely a woman as significant as this and who meant so 
much to not only African Americans but to all Americans deserves to be 
honored right here in the rotunda of the United States Capitol, the 
very place where in July of 1999 President William Jefferson Clinton 
awarded her the Congressional Gold Medal, the Nation's highest honor 
given to a civilian.

                              {time}  1215

  This concurrent resolution we are considering today is required so 
that both Houses may concur in the use of the rotunda, which is 
controlled by the Congress. This procedure was last used in 2004 
following the death of the late President Ronald Reagan.
  I urge my colleagues to bestow upon this great lady, Rosa Louise 
Parks, one last honor and make her the first nongovernmental official, 
first woman, and the first African American woman to lie in honor in 
the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.
  Please support this resolution allowing America to pay its final 
respects to the Mother of the civil rights movement, the great Rosa 
Louise Parks.
  Mr. Speaker, I will be happy now to yield to the few Members who are 
here to speak on this resolution, the first of whom will be the 
gentleman who is the dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, who knew 
her so well and who served with her so admirably.
  Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to object, I yield to the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers).
  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the floor leader, the gentlewoman 
from California (Ms. Millender-McDonald), for her kindness and her 
leadership; and I, of course, am very proud that the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Ehlers) is leading this concurrent resolution on the 
other side of the aisle.
  I am happy to also see my colleague, the honorable gentlewoman from 
Detroit, Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick) and, of course, the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Lewis), the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, 
the gentlewoman from Indiana (Ms. Carson), and many others here on the 
floor.
  Both leaders on both sides of the aisle have aptly described the 
phenomenal career, activities, and legacy that Rosa Parks leaves 
behind. It is only my task to tell my colleagues as the one who knows 
her better than anybody in the Congress about the indomitable spirit of 
Rosa Louise Parks, that is to say, that there were two parts to Rosa 
Louise Parks.
  One was her calm, respectful, dignified exterior. She was a very 
humble woman. She always spoke in a very calm voice. I can say I have 
never seen her angry or in a debate mode in her life. She has never 
gotten into any argument, and I use this analogy as carefully as I can, 
but she reminds me of what I think Mother Teresa was like. I mean, she 
had her own sphere of serenity; and yet, at the same time, there were 
three things that she was extremely deeply connected and committed to.
  One, she was a very religious person and she did not wear her 
religion on her sleeve, that is to say, she did not quote from the 
Bible or make religious references; but she was deeply committed to her 
African Methodist Episcopal church, and one of the services will be in 
Montgomery, Alabama.
  The other matter that was very deeply held was her fierce opposition 
to segregation, and she could not have suspected that that deep 
opposition would lead her to be the main participant in a Federal case 
that went up to the United States Supreme Court and dealt the death 
blow not only to segregation, to the bus system in Montgomery, but it 
dealt a death blow to the segregated systems that existed as a way of 
life in many places in the United States. That, plus the Brown v. Board 
of Education decision the year earlier was the death knell.
  It has already been observed that as humble as she was, it is hard to 
remember that she was an activist. She was not a person hoping that 
something good would happen. She was the first member to join the 
Montgomery chapter of NAACP, and she went through training classes, and 
so without any premeditation, no coordination with lawyers or civil 
rights organizations, and I have talked with her about this, that was 
the thing on everybody's mind in Detroit, is that it was not a matter 
of her feet being tired that day after a long day's work as a 
seamstress in this department store, but what happened inside her, the 
result of her belief system, her commitment to justice, led her that 
day to once again refuse to give up her seat and go to the back of the 
bus.
  They begged her, please, lady, you do not know what you are getting 
into because you are going to get arrested and prosecuted today; and as 
a matter of fact, I think she did know fully that she was taking her 
life, her safety into her own hands.

[[Page 24229]]

  As a result of this, not only did she break down segregation, she 
earned her title, as has been referred to, as the Mother of the Civil 
Rights Movement because it was she that brought in this 26-year-old 
Baptist minister named Martin Luther King, Jr., who quickly began to 
organize the total support that was coming up to Rosa Parks.
  So what happened then, of course, is a matter of history. She came to 
Detroit, not because she wanted to. She came because she was driven out 
of Montgomery, Alabama. How differently history would have been had she 
been able to stay there, because even though I had met her before I 
came to Congress, we put our arms around her, but there was some 
nervousness about who was Rosa Parks. She did not put out press 
releases. She did not organize. She was just always there and always 
willing to help.
  What finally happened is that this Member of Congress said, as a 
result of the first time I ever ran for anything, I said if I can win a 
seat to the highest legislative body in this land, the first person I 
am going to ask to join my staff would be Rosa Louise Parks. She did 
not ask me for a job. I was honored to have her, and I do not mind 
telling my colleagues, she was a celebrity staffer. More people came to 
visit Rosa Parks in my congressional office than came to visit 
Congressman John Conyers, and I am so proud of her.
  There are many things that we can talk about that I am going to be 
putting into writing and that we will be observing, but I want to thank 
the leadership of this Congress who have distinguished themselves.
  We got complete cooperation from the majority leader in the Senate, 
the minority leader in the Senate, Senator Obama, Senators Levin and 
Stabenow and many others in the other body; but it was in the House of 
Representatives that the Speaker of the House joined immediately with 
the Congressional Black Caucus's request for transportation and for the 
privilege of having this be the first woman to ever be honored by her 
remains being on display in the rotunda of the Capitol of the United 
States.
  I am so proud of my colleagues and all who have made what was a very 
difficult set of arrangements between Montgomery, Washington, DC, and 
Detroit possible. I am in the debt of the gentlewoman from California 
who has admirably brought this resolution to the floor.
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to 
object, I thank the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) so much for 
his leadership and for the greatness that he has shown during the 
sadness.
  Mr. Speaker, the next speaker we will bring forth is the vice 
chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus and one who is now in the 
process of getting a Federal building named after this great lady.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. 
Kilpatrick).
  Ms. KILPATRICK of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for 
yielding and let me thank the Speaker for the time.
  I want to praise and give God honor for all that has happened over 
the last week and certainly for the life of Mrs. Rosa Parks.
  I want to thank the Senate that had the courage yesterday, its 
leadership along with the House leadership, for making it possible for 
Mrs. Parks to lie in honor in the Federal building of the United 
States, our own Capitol, which will be on Sunday and Monday.
  As a young woman 19 years old, I met Mrs. Parks when she sat down on 
December 1, 1955, that all of us might stand up. I was 10 years old, 
but we were at the time writing papers about our history, and she was 
my project, and from then until this day, she has always been a part of 
my life.
  When she moved to Detroit almost 50 years ago, she moved to the then-
15th congressional district, now 13th congressional district, which has 
gone through five different apportionments, but her homes, three of 
them, have always been in my congressional district.
  She was my heroine. She was my mentor. She invited me to speak at her 
church on women's day on two different occasions. I am an African 
Methodist Episcopalian, an AME as we call ourselves.
  So I am honored that America will have her in the Halls of this 
Congress, in the Halls of our government to pay homage so that other 
people can attest to her greatness as she has done not just for our 
country but for our entire world.
  I was honored in 2000 as a member of the Committee on Appropriations 
that I was able to bring $1 million which was concurred in by the House 
and Senate to the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Civil 
Development, which works with young people to build character, to build 
academic preparedness, so that they understand what the civil rights 
movement is and was today.
  Rosa Parks helped more young people in America, even today as we go 
forward when our city of Detroit, and I am sure around this country, 
when a young person sees, hears, or mentions her name, they are filled 
with life, spirit. The self-respect that Mrs. Parks showed in her life, 
we as Americans must have. When you respect yourself, you walk a little 
different. You do not stand for injustice. You speak out and build a 
better family, a better community and, yes, a better country. That is 
what Mrs. Parks did.
  We will celebrate her again on December 1, 2005, 50 years of an 
ordinary woman doing extraordinary things. We love you, Mother Parks. 
Thank you, highest government in the world, for paying homage to our 
mother, our leader. May she rest in peace and may we as an American 
people rise up and build.
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to 
object, I thank the gentlewoman so much for that extraordinary tribute 
to such an extraordinary woman.
  Mr. Speaker, the next speaker that I am asking to come forward is the 
chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, one who spoke the other 
night of how he was inspired by the works that she had done.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Watt).

                              {time}  1230

  Mr. WATT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. 
Millender-McDonald) for yielding.
  We all are under the disadvantage of never having enough time. We 
could speak the rest of the day, the rest of the week, the rest of the 
month, the rest of the year, next year, and we still could not say 
enough things to give praise to Rosa Parks, who meant so much to us.
  I want to be very brief and I would simply ask, if I may, to take a 
part of the Record that was done in Special Orders the night before 
last and graft it into this section of our Record so that it will 
appear here. The Congressional Black Caucus, headed by the gentleman 
from Alabama (Mr. Davis) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) 
of Michigan, the two States to which Rosa Parks had the most concrete 
and physical connection, led that Special Order, and a number of 
members of the Congressional Black Caucus came and spoke, including 
myself.
  Mr. Speaker, I would ask unanimous consent that we make that a part 
of the Record of today.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Burgess). Without objection, the 
previous remarks of the gentleman may be inserted at this point and, 
without objection, general leave is granted to all Members to insert 
their respective remarks at this point.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. WATT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. 
Conyers) for yielding.
  I was trying to decide how to approach this issue and decided that 
probably there were two things I need to do: number one, I want to 
thank the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Davis), my good friend and 
colleague, and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers), my good 
friend and colleague, the two States with whom Rosa Parks probably had 
the strongest physical connections, for convening this Special Order 
for us to pay tribute to Rosa Parks.

[[Page 24230]]

  I have listened to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) and the 
gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Davis) and the gentlewoman from California 
(Ms. Lee) and my other colleagues talk about some of their personal 
connections to Rosa Parks. One would think that maybe the chairman of 
the Congressional Black Caucus would have some personal stories, too; 
but when I reflect, I can only say that I never met Rosa Parks, nor for 
that matter but for the fact that Martin Luther King spoke at my high 
school graduation in 1963 did I ever meet Martin Luther King.
  So why would we be here talking about somebody that we have never 
met? Because they have had an impact on our lives. What would compel a 
person to go visit a bus stop in Alabama? Simply because you knew that 
there was a particular significance to that bus stop, that that was the 
stop at which Rosa Parks got on the bus.
  I cannot talk about the personal things about Rosa Parks that some of 
my colleagues have talked about. I can only talk about the impact that 
she had on my life and the lives of other people who viewed her from a 
distance and respected and admired her gentle but defiant stand, the 
stand that she took actually by sitting down and refusing to stand up, 
and by knowing that it had a tremendous impact on everybody around us 
as we were growing up, because by her sitting down and refusing to 
stand up, it allowed other people to stand up and straighten their 
backs and raise their shoulders and look up and start to move in a 
direction that we had not been moving before, starting with a bus 
boycott, and then sit-ins and other public accommodations and the entry 
of Martin Luther King as a leader of a whole series of things that 
started to take place.
  What does that say for us who never met this wonderful woman, except 
from a distance? It says that there are probably many, many, many 
people who are watching us and would it not be a wonderful tribute to 
have somebody someday pay tribute to us who never, ever met us in 
person, by saying this person had an impact on my life.
  I cannot think of a higher way to pay tribute to her. She had an 
impact on my life, and I cannot think of a greater challenge to issue 
to my colleagues in this body, to people who may be watching around the 
Nation, than to say what a wonderful tribute to have somebody think 
that you could impact their lives by simply sitting down or taking a 
stand for what you know is right.
  We have that opportunity every single day, and I am delighted to pay 
tribute to Rosa Parks for exercising that opportunity and for allowing 
me to stand taller on her shoulders, on that giant commitment that she 
made.
  Mr. Speaker, I do want to spend one moment, if I may, talking about 
the underlying resolution. We have not heard much of a whimper of 
opposition to it, and I do not anticipate any opposition to it. But 
when we are doing something for the first time, there is always going 
to be somebody who would raise the question, raise a question, and the 
one question that several people have raised is are we creating a 
precedent here. I want to address that because I think we need some 
benchmarks for this for future Congresses and others to take into 
account.
  This is the way I view this. Our Capitol and its Rotunda stand as a 
monument to our democracy. There are some principles upon which our 
democracy is founded that were articulated by the Founding Fathers. As 
most people know, the Founding Fathers articulated the very highest 
principles for our country, and they were just exquisite principles.
  Unfortunately, the Founding Fathers did not necessarily at that time 
intend for all of those principles to apply to everybody. They did not 
apply to women, for example. They certainly were not intended to apply 
to African Americans.
  The standard that I want to articulate here, I think, that undergirds 
this resolution and the authority to have the body of Rosa Parks lie in 
honor in the Rotunda is that more than perhaps anybody that we can 
think of, she extended those principles of the Founding Fathers in a 
way that they apply universally to all of us.
  I am not going to dwell anymore on that because I do not want to 
start trying as an individual to start articulating a standard for 
having somebody lie in honor in the Rotunda, but for those people who 
may be worried about it setting a precedent or worried about how future 
Congresses are going to decide whether to do or not to do the same 
thing, let me advance the proposition that the role that Rosa Parks 
played in our democracy for some people, for all people, is as 
profound, as important as the role that the Founding Fathers played 
when they articulated a set of principles, because the principles do 
not mean anything unless they apply to all citizens of this country.
  That is what Rosa Parks was fighting for. That is what we ought to 
continue to fight for, and the highest tribute that we could pay to 
Rosa Parks going forward is to continue her fight, the fight that she 
sat down on a bus; that made it possible for us to stand up and lift 
our shoulders and lift our visions and really, really aspire to 
believing that the principles that were articulated by our Founding 
Fathers apply to each and every one of us.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me time, and I hope 
I have not abused it by talking primarily about the resolution and its 
place in history, but I just thought we needed to put that marker down 
at this place so that somebody will understand why this powerful lady 
has this honor and how she honors us and the principles that our 
government stands on by lying in honor in our Rotunda.
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, that was beautifully said by the 
gentleman.
  Further reserving the right to object, I yield to the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Al Green), one of the present members of the Congressional 
Black Caucus, one who has served as a judge and who recognizes the laws 
as they were applied during the civil rights era.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Millender-McDonald) for yielding me this time, and I 
also thank all who have supported this resolution on both sides of the 
aisle. It could not happen without the benefit of both sides working 
together. This is a great moment in history.
  Mr. Speaker, I also thank God for the honorable Rosa Parks. It is 
amazing how God can use what appears to be an ordinary person to do an 
extraordinary thing. She was not a great lawyer; however, she changed 
the laws of discrimination in this country. She was not a superstar; 
however, she cast the light of truth on the horrors of segregation. She 
was not a fiery orator; however, by taking her seat, she ignited that 
spark that started the civil rights movement.
  Thank God she took that seat. Because she took that seat, no one has 
to sit in the back of the bus. Because she took that seat, we can all 
sit at the table of brotherhood as brothers and sisters, members of one 
race, the human race. Because she took that seat, I can stand in the 
well of the House of Representatives of the United States of America.
  Thank God for the honorable Rosa Parks. She was an angel of hope for 
the hopeless, a saint of help for the helpless. She represents the 
quintessential manifestation of God's miraculous power.
  Mr. Speaker, she has earned the right to lie in honor, and I thank 
God we have the good sense to make it happen.
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, continuing to reserve the right 
to object, I yield to the gentlewoman from Indiana (Ms. Carson), who 
saw the need to bring forth this great lady to give her a Congressional 
Medal of Honor because of the honor she bestowed on this country.
  Ms. CARSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for allowing me this 
opportunity to speak. I thank both Houses of the United States Congress 
for permitting a lady of honor to be honored in a House of honor. I 
thank both sides. There are times when events come upon our lives when 
politics fades, color fades, and America comes together as one Nation 
under God, exhibiting liberty and justice for all people.

[[Page 24231]]

  Ms. Rosa Parks inspired me to run for Congress. When I first arrived 
in Congress, my first act in Congress was to create legislation that 
would award Rosa Parks the Congressional Gold Medal. It was 
overwhelmingly supported by both the House of Representatives and the 
United States Senate, for which she was so grateful.
  Here was a woman who was not seeking out attention. She just got on 
the bus one day, and the rule was when the section in which you were 
sitting as an African American fills up, you got up and moved back to 
allow more sit-down room for a people of a different color. Rosa Parks 
got up twice and moved back. The third time when she was ordered to 
move, she refused to move, thus having those who would have to move to 
have to make the next move.
  We will hear time and time again that as Rosa Parks sat down, the 
whole world stood up in gratitude and in praise of a woman who had the 
courage to do this. She often reminds me of a philosopher, I think it 
was Thoreau, who said, if I do not march by the drumbeat, it is because 
I hear a different drummer. So Rosa Parks marched by the drumbeat that 
she heard that was in pursuit of liberty, in pursuit of equality, in 
pursuit of justice for all people, for which I am so proud.
  She may not have worn her religion on her sleeve, but she acted like 
Dorcas in biblical history, a seamstress, who made garments for the 
less privileged, who gave garments to people who could not afford 
garments so they had clothes to wear. So Rosa Parks is like a Dorcas 
who gave what she could whenever she could, and I am so proud of the 
fact that I knew her personally.
  Almost 50 ago, Rosa Parks made history in this Nation. She became 
affectionately known as the mother of the civil rights movement. If we 
had not had that event, we probably would never have heard of Martin 
Luther King. That is why she is the mother of the civil rights 
movement.
  I want to thank the House of Representatives and the United States 
Senate for bestowing this honor on such a unique individual, not 
because she is black, not because she is a woman, but because she is 
highly deserving of this unique opportunity to have her remains lay in 
state here to allow people of Washington, DC, and the surrounding area 
to come here and pay homage to one of the finest individuals who ever 
walked the halls of the United States Congress when she received a gold 
medal, one of the finest individuals that ever lived.

                              {time}  1245

  And I am grateful that she lived in my lifetime. So I thank them very 
much again for those who were inspired to do this. Congratulations on a 
job well up done, representing a woman who had a job that was well 
done.
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to 
object, I thank the gentlewoman for her insight in bringing her this 
Congressional Medal of Honor.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), who 
is also a drum major for justice. His name is in the history books 
already. He walked with her and talked with her and helped in the 
development of the civil rights movement.
  Mr. LEWIS from Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from 
California for yielding to me.
  I am pleased to rise today in support of this resolution. I think it 
is fitting and so appropriate that Rosa Parks be honored in the rotunda 
of the United States Capitol. By sitting down almost 50 years ago on a 
city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks was standing up. It was 
very dangerous, very dangerous, to do what Rosa Parks did on December 
1, 1955.
  I grew up only 50 miles from Montgomery, not too far from Tuskegee. I 
was 15 years old in 1955. I saw segregation. I saw racial 
discrimination. I saw those signs that said white men, colored men; 
white women, colored women; white waiting; colored waiting. And if it 
had not been for Rosa Parks, I do not know where many of us would be 
today. I do not know where I would be.
  It was dangerous to do what Rosa Parks did. Just think about it. A 
few months earlier, Emmett Till had been murdered in Mississippi, a 
young African American from the city of Chicago visiting Mississippi 
during the summer. So much violence, so much hate, so much fear. And 
this brave, courageous spirit ignited a movement not just in Montgomery 
but a movement that spread like wildfire across the American South and 
the Nation. She inspired some of us to sit in at lunch counters to 
bring an end to segregation and racial discrimination. She inspired 
some of us to stand-in at theaters. She inspired some of us to kneel-in 
at churches, and she inspired others to integrate libraries and parks 
and desegregate schools.
  By this one simple act, Rosa Parks helped to usher in a nonviolent 
revolution in America, a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas.
  I knew Rosa Parks. We met together at Highlander Folk School in Mount 
Eagle, Tennessee. In Montgomery, in Selma, in Atlanta. She served on 
the SCLC board, the board that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asked me to 
come and serve on when I was 22 years old, in 1962. So I saw a great 
deal of her. She came back from Detroit 40 years ago, in March of 1965, 
dressed so beautifully, so quiet, dignified, so proud; and she walked 
with us across the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the right to vote.
  Many have said, others have said, that Rosa Parks was the Mother of 
the modern-day civil rights movement. Yes, that is true. But she was 
more than a mother of the modern-day civil rights movement. She should 
be looked upon as one of the founders of the New America, one of the 
founders of the beloved community, a truly interracial democracy. This 
woman, this one woman, this beautiful soul planted by the spirit of 
history by God Almighty, not to move, changed my life, changed America. 
I thank Rosa Parks.
  Mr. Speaker, I support the resolution.
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to 
object, I thank the great gentleman from the State of Georgia for his 
comments.
  Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-
Lee), one who was a former judge and who also had to interpret those 
laws that were made during the civil rights era.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, whether it is appropriate to 
object and reserve the right to object, of course I am not objecting.
  I thank the distinguished gentlewoman from California for yielding to 
me.
  And might I offer how grand it is in a time such as this to have her 
appropriately placed in such a leadership role. Her role tracks the 
specialness of this day and the reason we stand, which is to honor a 
woman of greatness, Rosa Parks, and to support the resolution of the 
Senate that asked of this body the opportunity for her to lie in honor.
  I am very proud to have been an original cosponsor of the House 
resolution, authored by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers), but 
we are even more gratified to be able to take the Senate resolution 
agreed to by the Senate last evening and place it at the desk for its 
agreement.
  I too want to focus as much on her life and legacy as I do on this 
resolution, because even as we speak in glorified terms on the floor of 
the House, I know that there will be the sense of wondering about the 
interpretation of lying in honor and the reason thereof.
  So many of us in our lifetime have had the privilege of weaving in 
and out of the life of Rosa Parks, either by being mere beneficiaries 
in the academic institutions that we have been able to journey through 
or in the sheer presence by being alongside of her or with her. I am 
honored in my adult life to have had her come through the United States 
Congress to be in meetings with her and, with a smile on my face, to 
even have a picture taken with Rosa Parks.
  I say that because these are small measures of the association that 
many of us have had, but we treasure it because of the enormity of her 
life.
  So the reason I think this resolution is so key is because rather 
than call

[[Page 24232]]

her a hero or shero, she is iconic. This is a singular moment in 
history that really stopped the world because we will be asked, she is 
lying in state and there are a number of others, what is the precedent 
being set? So I want to classify this as iconic.
  When Rosa Parks sat down, the world stopped. America was no longer 
the America as we knew it, the fact that it was a single, very petite 
woman with not a large voice but a smiling spirit that stopped the 
wheels of segregation in America. They were churning. They were 
violent. They were intimidating. They were very frightening. They were 
inhibiting. They were stopping the Bill of Rights. And Rosa Parks felt 
that she too born in America, yet two- thirds of a person as a slave, 
she thought it was appropriate for her to be able to acknowledge the 
fact that colored people, black people, Negro people no longer needed 
to take the back of the bus, the back of America, the back of the 
rights, the back of the Constitution, the back of the Bill of Rights.
  And it was Rosa Parks who sat down and challenged that bus driver, 
who may have been on that day, December 1, simply a bus driver in 
Montgomery, Alabama; but he stood as the sheer brick wall of 
segregation in America that we had not been able to pierce. But yet 
that day sprung forth this Montgomery improvement association and the 
complete boycotting for some 300-plus days, the litigation, civil 
rights litigation, that ultimately resulted in the breaking of the 
segregation of buses and accommodation in Montgomery, Alabama, that 
then led to the journey toward the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as my 
colleague has mentioned, and the 1965 Voter Rights Act that occurred 
and broke open through her singular act the wall that had stopped 
America from being America, by dividing us through the heinous 
divisiveness of race.
  Now, race still matters in America. But where we are today, 40 and 50 
years past, the act that she created put us where we are today. That is 
why this resolution should be categorized as iconic, signaling a single 
moment in history that so very few of us can ever account for.
  And let me just say these few remarks. I feel a kinship with her 
because I worked for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference 
during the time that she was a board member, during the life span of 
Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, shortly after the assassination of Martin 
Luther King, Jr. I served on the Select Committee of Assassinations in 
this House as a young lawyer, investigating the assassinations of Dr. 
Martin Luther King, Jr. and President John F. Kennedy, two catastrophic 
American tragedies that impacted the lives of those of us who lived at 
that time.
  For anyone who lived, we asked the question whether America could 
survive. But we were comforted by the fact that a lady named Rosa Parks 
still lived and carried forward that simpleness and simplicity that if 
I could stop America in her tracks and change her from a segregated 
divisive and unruly kid, if you will, then we could survive and 
overcome these catastrophic events.
  So today I rise in support of this resolution alongside the story of 
her very important history. But I rise because it is a glorious day in 
this body, a historic day, that an African American woman, known most 
of her life as a colored woman, whose ancestors came first from the 
bottom of the belly of a slave boat, can now lie in honor because 
Members of Congress from the bowels of the Deep South, of Alabama, 
Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, where the 
segregation line was drawn, will in unanimous consent agree that she 
should lie in state because we will agree that her singular action was 
one that moved America to the part of America that we would hope that 
she could be. And we move this day to honor her and make this final 
commitment that we have not arrived yet. We are not yet finished. The 
job is not yet done.
  To Rosa Parks, as she rests in peace, may it be our commitment that 
we will continue to fight and continue to agitate nonviolently until 
America, yes, America, reaches her promise.
  May you rest in peace, my sister, Rosa Parks.
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to 
object, I thank the distinguished gentlewoman for her comments.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the great State of 
Illinois (Mr. Rush), one who placed his marker on the path of civil 
rights in the 1960s.
  Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, I certainly want to thank the gentlewoman from 
California for her outstanding, steadfast leadership not only on this 
issue and in this regard but for all the work that she has done on 
behalf of the people called Americans, people who are in this Nation.

                              {time}  1300

  Mr. Speaker, the Bible tells us that the glory of the Lord is our 
strength. We are strengthened in order to glorify him and glorify his 
creation.
  I think of that particular scripture as I think of Rosa Parks. You 
see, because ordinarily back in 1955, a person who was an African 
American, called ``colored'' at the time, was supposed to respect a 
system that denied the dignity of African Americans, of blacks, during 
that time. So tradition had it that once you got on a bus, you could 
take a seat at the back of the bus as long as there was not a white 
person who needed a seat; and if there was a white person who needed a 
seat on the bus, then the black person was, out of honor and a sense of 
second-class citizenship, to rise up and give that white person their 
seat on the bus. That was wrong, and today we all realize how wrong 
that system was.
  The Lord, in my estimation, had some serious problems with that kind 
of a system, and he wanted that system corrected. So in a singular 
moment, in the batting of an eye, he whispered to Rosa Parks, ``Don't 
move. Sit there. I will protect you. I will be with you. I have a 
hedge, a protection, that surrounds you. Sit there. And just in case 
you are not listening to me, I want you to think about Emmett Till. 
Remember Emmett Till. But just sit there. Whatever you have to do, just 
sit there, because I have got something that I want you to do. I have 
got something, a task, a goal, an objective for you to accomplish. I 
want you to teach the world, teach this Nation, about what I can do 
using an ordinary woman to accomplish some extraordinary things.''
  So, Rosa Parks sat there. This humble seamstress from the South did 
not realize that just by her sitting there, that she was beginning to 
stitch together a torn fabric called America and that she was beginning 
to stand by sitting. The Lord in his glory uses ordinary people to 
accomplish extraordinary things.
  Mr. Speaker, I am a product of the civil rights movement. I was 
raised in the civil rights movement. I started out in the Student 
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and then I became a member of the 
Black Panther Party. In all of my activities in the civil rights 
movement, I focused on the strength, the calmness, the deep commitment 
of Rosa Parks.
  I know that without Rosa Parks, there would not be 40 members of the 
Congressional Black Caucus today. Without Rosa Parks, we would not have 
an African American in the U.S. Senate. Mr. Speaker, I know that 
without Rosa Parks, we would not have the successes that we have been 
able to enjoy over these last few years here in America.
  Mr. Speaker, I want us to realize that there was more to Rosa Parks 
than just what happened in Montgomery, in the borders of this country. 
By her taking that simple act, which took enormous courage and 
commitment and resolve and persistence, by her taking that one act, she 
inspired an entire world.
  Mr. Speaker, as I close my eyes, and if I look across the landscape 
of this world, and as I look in Europe, I see images, I see Lech Walesa 
in Poland being inspired by the actions, the sitting down of Rosa Parks 
in Montgomery, Alabama. As I look in China, I see the students in 
Tiananmen Square being inspired by Rosa Parks. And as I look to Africa, 
I see Nelson Mandela being inspired by Rosa Parks sitting

[[Page 24233]]

down. And as I look in Latin America, I see youth groups and I see the 
students in Colombia and other places being inspired by the legacy of 
Rosa Parks sitting down. Of course, we all know here in this Nation, 
Dr. Martin Luther King was brought to the forefront of the world's 
consciousness by Rosa Parks sitting down.
  So, Mr. Speaker, it is with deep honor, profound privilege, deep-
seated admiration and undying love that I stand here as a Member of 
Congress, a product of the civil rights movement, a young boy who 
remembered the segregated buses as a lad in Albany, Georgia. I stand 
here today proud of being a Member of this Congress, proud of the 
Senate, proud of the House of Representatives, but I am just so, so, 
so, so proud that I lived in a generation that not only heard about 
Rosa Parks, but walked with Rosa Parks, that talked with Rosa Parks, 
that was able to touch just the hem of the seamstress' garment.
  Mr. Speaker, I support this resolution.
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, continuing my reservation, the 
last speaker that we have today is one who was a former Governor of 
American Samoa. As has been said, Rosa Parks did not just impress those 
of us who are African Americans, but she inspired all Americans.
  I yield to the honorable gentleman from American Samoa (Mr. Faleoma-
vaega).
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding 
to me, and certainly want to first commend the chairman of the 
Committee on House Administration, the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman 
Ney), and our ranking member of the committee, the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Millender-McDonald), for managing our portion of this 
important resolution that was introduced by Senator Dodd from 
Connecticut.
  Mr. Speaker, I am very honored to be given this opportunity to speak 
on the occasion of honoring this great American. As vice chairman of 
our Asian Pacific Congressional Caucus, I know that the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Honda), our chairman, would have loved to be here, but 
he is necessarily absent, so I am doing this on behalf of our Asian 
Pacific American community.
  History has not been very kind to the coming of various minority 
groups to our Nation. The history of the African American is replete 
with so much of the tremendous amount of racism and bigotry that has 
been heaped upon these good fellow Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, we have a saying in the islands, ``The leaves of the 
coconut tree just do not swing by themselves.'' There is a reason for 
it. There is a cause for it.
  I did not have the privilege of knowing personally this great 
American woman Mrs. Rosa Parks, but I stand here before my colleagues 
as one who is the beneficiary of the sacrifices and the tremendous 
examples she has set for all Americans. I would like to say that not 
only did she serve as a catalyst, but she planted a seed, a seed that 
was planted in fertile ground, as the good book says, and what has that 
seed produced?
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to share with my colleagues, and I will 
include the full text of this speech for the record that I think 
probably every Member should read at least 1 year, the famous speech 
given by this great American minister on the steps of the Lincoln 
Memorial on that summer day in 1963. I want to share portions of this 
speech that was given by this great American as a result of the seed 
that was planted by Rosa Parks. This American minister made this most 
profound speech. I will share portions of that with my colleagues.
  He said: ``I am happy to join you today in what will go down in 
history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our 
Nation.
  ``Four score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we 
stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous 
decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves 
who have been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a 
joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
  ``But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years 
later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of 
segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, 
the Negro still lives in the lonely island of poverty, in the midst of 
a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro 
is still languished in the corners of American society and finds 
himself in exile in his own land. And so we have come here today to 
dramatize a shameful condition.
  ``We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the 
fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of 
cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the 
time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise 
from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of 
racial justice. Now is the time to lift our Nation from the quicksands 
of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time 
to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
  ``But there is something that I must say to my people who stand in 
the warm, fresh hope which leads into the palace of justice: In the 
process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of 
wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to justify our thirst for freedom by 
drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct 
our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not 
allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again 
and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical 
force with soul force.
  ``I have a dream that one day this Nation will rise up and live out 
the true meaning of its creed: `We hold these truths to be self-
evident, that all men are created equal.'
  ``I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons 
of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to 
sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
  ``I have a dream that one day even the State of Mississippi, a State 
sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of 
oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
  ``I have a dream that my four little children one day will live in a 
Nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by 
the content of their character.''
  This minister, Mr. Speaker, happens to be Martin Luther King, Jr., 
whom we all know.
  This is the seed that Rosa Parks planted. The greatest American that 
I have ever, ever studied, idolized in my own little humble history, 
coming from a little village in one of those little islands, to know 
that this man stood, not because he is an African American, but because 
he was a human being, just as Rosa Parks was a human being, not because 
she was an African American.

                              {time}  1315

  I think this is what America is all about. This is what makes the 
greatness of our Nation, that we are able to correct those injustices 
and those wrongs that were committed against other people who have 
every perfect right to live as fellow Americans. It was done to the 
Japanese Americans during World War II, just as it was done to the 
African Americans in their history as they now just realize that the 
civil rights, the rights of all Americans, should be treated fairly 
under the Constitution and under our laws.
  For that, Mr. Speaker, I make this humble homage and a special 
tribute to this great American lady, Rosa Parks; and I am just so happy 
that this resolution calls for her remains to be in the rotunda as the 
greatest honor of any American.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for giving me this chance to 
speak.

              Martin Luther King, Jr.: ``I Have a Dream''

       I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in 
     history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the 
     history of our nation.
       Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic 
     shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. 
     This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to 
     millions of Negro slaves who

[[Page 24234]]

     had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came 
     as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their 
     captivity.
       But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. 
     One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly 
     crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of 
     discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a 
     lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of 
     material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is 
     still languished in the corners of American society and finds 
     himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here 
     today to dramatize a shameful condition.
       In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a 
     check. When the architects of our republic wrote the 
     magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of 
     Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which 
     every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that 
     all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be 
     guaranteed the ``unalienable Rights'' of ``Life, Liberty and 
     the pursuit of Happiness.'' It is obvious today that America 
     has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her 
     citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this 
     sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad 
     check, a check which has come back marked ``insufficient 
     funds.''
       But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is 
     bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient 
     funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And 
     so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us 
     upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of 
     justice.
       We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America 
     of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in 
     the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug 
     of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of 
     democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate 
     valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. 
     Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of 
     racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the 
     time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
       It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of 
     the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate 
     discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating 
     autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not 
     an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro 
     needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a 
     rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. 
     And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America 
     until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The 
     whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations 
     of our nation until the bright day of justice I emerges.
       But there is something that I must say to my people, who 
     stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of 
     justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we 
     must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.
       Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by 
     drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must 
     forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and 
     discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to 
     degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must 
     rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with 
     soul force.
       The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro 
     community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, 
     for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their 
     presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny 
     is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize 
     that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
       We cannot walk alone.
       And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall 
     always march ahead.
       We cannot turn back.
       There are those who are asking the devotees of civil 
     rights, ``When will you be satisfied?'' We can never be 
     satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the 
     unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be 
     satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of 
     travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and 
     the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as a 
     Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York 
     believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not 
     satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until ``justice rolls 
     down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.''
       I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of 
     great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh 
     from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas 
     where your quest--quest for freedom left you battered by the 
     storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police 
     brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. 
     Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is 
     redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go 
     back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to 
     Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern 
     cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be 
     change.
       Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you 
     today, my friends.
       And so even though we face the difficulties of today and 
     tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted 
     in the American dream.
       I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and 
     live out the true meaning of its creed: ``We hold these 
     truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.''
       I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, 
     the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners 
     will be able to sit down together at the table of 
     brotherhood.
       I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, 
     a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering 
     with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an 
     oasis of freedom and justice.
       I have a dream that my four little children will one day 
     live in a nation where they will not be judged by he color of 
     their skin but by the content of their character.
       I have a dream today!
       I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its 
     vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping 
     with the words of ``interposition'' and ``nullification''--
     one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black 
     girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and 
     white girls as sisters and brothers.
       I have a dream today!
       I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, 
     and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough 
     places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be 
     made straight; ``and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed 
     and all flesh shall see it together.''
       This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to 
     the South with.
       With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain 
     of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able 
     to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a 
     beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will 
     be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle 
     together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom 
     together, knowing that we will be free one day.
       And this will be the day--this will be the day when all of 
     God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

     My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I 
           sing.
     Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
     From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

       And if America is to be a great nation, this must become 
     true.
       And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New 
     Hampshire.
       Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
       Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of 
     Pennsylvania.
       Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
       Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
       But not only that:
       Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
       Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
       Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of 
     Mississippi.
       From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
       And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we 
     let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every 
     state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day 
     when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and 
     Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join 
     hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
       Free at last! free at last!
       Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to 
object, I rise in strong support of this concurrent resolution to honor 
an individual who chose to assert her civil rights and her human rights 
at a critical moment in our history and, by doing so, changed America 
forever. I, as an African American woman, lived in California for 50 
years, although I was born in Birmingham, Alabama, along with 
Condoleezza Rice and Alma Vivian Johnson Powell. We all grew up 
together. My father, Reverend Shelly Millender, who was part of the 
ministers who walked with King, taught me to love and not to hate; and 
that is the premise by which I have built my life.
  Rosa Louise Parks richly deserves this honor to be placed in our 
rotunda for those days for all Americans who stood up as she sat down 
to honor her.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to allow the American people 
to pay their last respects to Rosa Parks in the United States Capitol. 
This unique honor befits and does justice to the life led by Rosa 
Parks.
  In honoring her legacy in this way, we are reminded that the power of 
one person, acting with a singularity of purpose, driven by the

[[Page 24235]]

ideals of justice, is infinite. And as we grieve the loss of Rosa 
Parks, we recommit ourselves to her lifelong struggle to create an 
America that reflects the hopes and aspirations of all of its citizens.
  The Capitol Rotunda has been used for this honor only 28 times since 
1852, and Rosa Parks will be the first woman ever accorded this honor. 
She joins the esteemed company of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, John F. 
Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson, General Douglas 
MacArthur and the remains of several unknown soldiers. It is, without 
question, a fitting mark of respect.
  Rosa Parks changed history through the quiet rebellion of refusing to 
be refused. In honor of this remarkable woman and her indomitable 
spirit, we must recommit to rooting out injustice wherever it takes 
harbor, even if doing so comes at great personal cost.
  As House Democratic Leader, it is a privilege to join all my 
colleagues in tribute to Rosa Parks, and to offer the American people 
an opportunity to pay their respects to her extraordinary life.
  Mr. BONNER. Mr. Speaker, this week our Nation lost a pioneer of the 
modern civil rights movement, and I rise today to honor her and pay 
tribute to her memory. Rosa Parks inspired generations of activists by 
refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus.
  Born Rosa McCauley on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama, she was 
the daughter of a carpenter and a teacher. She was small for her age 
and suffered from poor health, including chronic tonsillitis. She was 
very young when her parents separated, and she moved to Pine Level, 
Alabama, with her mother. Rosa was forced to leave school to care for 
her aging grandmother.
  She married barber Raymond Parks in 1932, at her mother's house. It 
was not until the year following her wedding that Ms. Parks, with the 
encouragement of her husband, received her high school diploma. She and 
her husband shared a passion for civil rights. Her husband was an early 
defender of the Scottsboro Boys, the group of young African Americans 
who were falsely accused of raping two white women in Scottsboro, 
Alabama.
  It took three attempts for Ms. Parks to register to vote in 1945. The 
administrator failed her the first two times she took the literacy 
test. The third time she took the test, she wrote all of her answers on 
a second piece of paper in the event she would later need to prove she 
should have passed. Ms. Parks was a volunteer secretary to the 
president of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP.
  In 1955, Rosa Parks was working as a seamstress for the Montgomery 
Fair department store. On the evening of December 1, 1955, as she 
waited for a bus to take her home, she had to let a full bus go by. She 
then boarded a second bus and sat in the middle section next to an 
African American man. At the next stop, several white people boarded 
and filled the seats reserved for them, but one white man was left 
standing. She refused to give up her seat to this man, and the bus 
driver called the police and had her arrested.
  The outrage over her arrest inspired the Montgomery bus boycott and 
the beginning of the modern civil rights movement. The Montgomery bus 
boycott ended after the United States Supreme Court on November 13, 
1956, declared segregation on buses unconstitutional.
  Near the end of her life, Rosa Parks deservedly received many 
accolades. A museum and library facility located on the Montgomery 
corner where she boarded the bus is named for her. She has received the 
Medal of Honor, the highest award bestowed by the U.S. government, and 
the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest civilian award.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in remembering the mother 
of the modern civil rights movement. A brave American who changed our 
country for the better, a dedicated and long-time advocate for civil 
rights, she is a woman whose courage forever changed America for the 
better.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to pay 
tribute to the memory of a great American hero and pioneer in the 
struggle for equality and civil rights in America, Ms. Rosa Parks.
  An old Chinese proverb says that the loftiest towers rise from the 
ground. So too it is with Rosa Parks. Her refusal to get up and move to 
the back of the bus so that a white man could take her seat was a 
catalyst for the national civil rights movement and a later Supreme 
Court decision overturning legalized segregation.
  At the time, she said she was just trying to get home from work. 
Reflecting on the significance of her actions years later, Ms. Parks 
said, ``Whatever my individual desires were to be free, I was not 
alone. There were many others who felt the same way.''
  Indeed, there were. And there are many more to this day. Thanks to 
the courage of a woman just trying to get home from work in 1955.
  Rosa Parks founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self 
Development. Through the institute, she sponsored a program for 
teenagers to learn the history of our country and the civil rights 
movement by touring the country in buses. She received the 
Congressional Gold Medal of Honor in 1999 and continued her struggle 
against racial injustice till her passing.
  And Congress is expected to approve soon an historic resolution 
making Rosa Parks the first woman in our country's history to lay in 
state in the Capitol Rotunda of the United States Congress.
  Rosa Parks' courage and determination changed our country. There is, 
of course, too much intolerance and injustice still in our society 
today. No one person can change all that. But each and every one of us 
can and should take the lesson from the life of Ms. Parks, that we can 
improve our society and ourselves by standing up for what we believe is 
right--or, as in her case, by sitting down.
  While I mourn her passing now, I join the millions of Americans 
throughout our great country who will celebrate the accomplishments of 
her rich life forever. Thank you, Rosa Parks, for your life.
  Mr. SHAYS. Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues today in honoring and 
celebrating the life of Rosa Parks, whose simple act of taking a seat 
on a bus woke our Nation's conscience and galvanized our civil rights 
movement.
  On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a seamstress and wife, boarded a 
Montgomery, Alabama bus to begin her usual journey home. Nothing was 
particularly different about this day, except that she wanted to sit 
after a long day's work. When ordered by the white bus driver to give 
up her seat to a white passenger, she simply refused, and her action 
set in motion a series of events that led to the desegregation of the 
South.
  This was a stunning moment in time, not just a step along the way. 
This was the moment for our civil rights movement and ultimately 
resulted in two of our Nation's landmark pieces of legislation, the 
Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.
  I am amazed too by this woman's fortitude, her inner strength and her 
calm demeanor in the face of these injustices. Her reaction stands in 
stark contrast to so many feelings we associate with that era--she was 
resolute, quiet and full of determination.
  I've read that on the day of her court appearance, a girl there 
yelled, ``Oh, she's so sweet. They've messed with the wrong one now!'' 
I'm sure that this girl, looking back on that same moment, cannot now 
believe how right she was.
  Today, we offer our condolences to Rosa Parks' family. It seems to me 
it is a fitting tribute to honor the mother of the civil rights 
movement by making her the first woman to lie in honor at the Capitol.
  Mr. CANTOR. Mr. Speaker, with the death of Rosa Parks, America has 
lost one of the great icons of the modem civil rights movement. No one 
could have known on that December day in 1955 what a great impact her 
simple yet courageous gesture would have on changing a perverse 
injustice in American society.
  Mrs. Parks took a seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama after a long 
day at work. A white man approached her and wanted to take her seat. As 
was the custom at the time, she was expected to give up that seat. This 
happened countless times before in countless cities and towns all 
across the South. But this time was different. This time Rosa Parks 
decided to say ``no'' to this injustice, ``no'' to this ridicule, 
``no'' to this insult.
  By simply saying ``no,'' Rosa Parks set off a chain of events that in 
the subsequent months led to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that 
segregation in public transportation was unconstitutional.
  Having the courage to refuse to accept injustice freed people of the 
subjugation of an oppressive society.
  While we have lost Rosa Parks in life, we have not lost the memory of 
her life's acts. She will endure as an inspiration to freedom loving 
people for generations to come.
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, today we honor the life and legacy of 
Rosa Parks. On October 24, Rosa Parks died in Detroit at the age of 92. 
I join all of my colleagues and on behalf of my constituents express 
sorrow on the death of Rosa Parks, the woman many consider the mother 
of the civil rights movement.
  Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a white person on 
December 1, 1955, touched off the 381-day Montgomery bus boycott, and 
led to the repeal of so-called Jim

[[Page 24236]]

Crow laws of segregation in the South. It is the courage, dignity, and 
determination that Ms. Parks exemplified on that day that allows most 
historians to credit her with beginning the modern day civil rights 
movement. The events that began on that bus captivated the Nation and 
transformed a 26-year-old preacher, Martin Luther King Jr., into a 
major civil rights leader. ``Mrs. Parks' arrest was the precipitating 
factor rather than the cause of the protest,'' King wrote in his 1958 
book, ``Stride Toward Freedom.'' ``The cause lay deep in the record of 
similar injustices.''
  Rosa Parks didn't set out to be a hero. But by taking a stand, she 
became the catalyst for a profound change in American society, and the 
walls of segregation came tumbling down. Rosa Parks is a national 
treasure and an inspiration for the ongoing fight for social equality. 
She reminds us that the pursuit for justice is an obligation for all 
instead of a choice for some. She was one small woman who had a big 
impact and empowered individuals. Her life's work is a shining light in 
our Nation's history.
  Rosa Parks said, ``I'd like people to say I'm a person who always 
wanted to be free and wanted it not only for myself; freedom is for all 
human beings.''
  This year marks the 50th Anniversary of Rosa Parks' courageous and 
defiant act of civil disobedience. As we honor her life and legacy, I 
ask the Congress and the great people of this Nation to work with the 
same courage, dignity, and determination exemplified by Rosa Parks to 
address and change modern day inequalities and injustices. I know that 
this Congress and the people of this Nation can work to further the 
ideals of Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement.
  Mr. SERRANO. Mr. Speaker, fifty years ago a small group of Americans, 
set out to ensure that America lived up to its promise of providing 
equal rights to all. They forced America to reach for her great 
potential and changed the destiny of not only a nation but the entire 
world. I rise today to honor the legacy and memory of the woman who 
gave life to this small group of Americans, the mother of the civil 
rights movement, Mrs. Rosa Parks.
  Rosa Louise McCauley was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4, 
1913. In 1932 she married a barber named Raymond Parks. Prior to her 
arrest they both were very active in the voter registration movement 
and with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored 
People, where she also worked as a secretary in 1943. Those who knew 
her best described her as being hardworking, polite and morally 
upright.
  On December 1, 1955 Parks took a seat in the front of the black 
section of a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. The bus filled up and the 
bus driver demanded that she move so a white male passenger could have 
her seat. When Parks refused to give up her seat she was arrested. Four 
days following her arrest, a group of dedicated young individuals 
founded the Montgomery Improvement Association and named Martin Luther 
King Jr., their leader. King led a successful boycott of the 
transportation system and went on to lead the modem civil rights 
movement ensuring that every American was guaranteed equal rights under 
the law.
  Rosa Parks was truly a courageous person. Her refusal to give up her 
seat in the face of the powerful forces of injustice helped to 
galvanize the long-overdue struggle for civil rights. She sat down in 
order to show us that we have tremendous power when we stand up. All 
Americans, regardless of race or creed, owe Mrs. Parks a debt of 
gratitude for her contribution to the national movement for a better 
America.
  Mr. Speaker, although she is gone, the power of her actions remain 
with us. As she said, ``Memories of our lives, of our worth and our 
deeds will continue in others.'' I hope that we heed those comments 
today as we continue the fight for equal rights and social justice. I 
thank her for her courage and I ask that my colleagues join me in 
honoring her memory.
  Mr. PLATTS. Mr. Speaker, on December 1, 1955, on a bus in Montgomery, 
Alabama, the conscience of the Nation was rallied by a seamstress from 
Tuskegee. ``The only tired I was,'' Rosa Parks once remarked about that 
day, ``was tired of giving in.''
  The injustice of racial segregation was overcome because so many 
ordinary people rallied to a great and noble cause, because so many 
ordinary people recognized an injustice and were tired of it. Rosa 
Parks' legacy is to have peacefully compelled our great nation to face 
up to its greatest shortcoming. As so many have said, Rosa Parks stood 
up by sitting down.
  Mr. Speaker, I am proud this chamber has today adopted a resolution 
(S. Con. Res. 61) to allow Ms. Parks to lie in honor in the rotunda of 
the United States Capitol, so that all citizens of our great Nation may 
pay their last respects. There must be room in this building for not 
only members of Congress and Presidents, but also for a seamstress and 
her moral legacy.
  Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, many people too easily forget that the 
rights and privileges we enjoy today did not come easily. They did not 
come without struggle, without suffering, without sacrifice.
  The passing this week of Rosa Parks should remind all of us that 
freedom does not come free. It comes, partly, because a middle aged 
African American woman in Montgomery, Alabama was tired from yet 
another long day's work as a seamstress. She was too tired to give up 
her seat at the front of the bus to a white man--as the racist Jim Crow 
Laws of the time required her to. Her simple act of defiance inspired a 
city, inspired a movement and inspired a nation. And her courage 
inspired me to get more deeply involved in the struggle for civil 
rights in our country.
  Mr. Speaker, freedom is not free. It must be earned and nutured by 
the courage and commitment of patriots like Rosa Parks.
  Mr. Speaker, Rosa Parks has helped make our nation a fairer, better 
country for all Americans, no matter their race, creed, sex, or 
national origin. It is right and fitting that this Congress of the 
United States recognize the contribution to our nation made by Rosa 
Parks.
  I am honored to support this concurrent resolution authorizing her 
body to lie in honor in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.
  Ms. SOLIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to the lives of two 
great Americans that changed the course of our Nation's history through 
their courage and commitment to the basic and fundamental right of 
equality for all.
  Rosa Parks embodied perseverance and tenacity, and through her 
fearless actions 50 years ago this courageous woman sparked a massive 
boycott that launched America's civil rights movement. Her lonely act 
of bravery brought to light the prejudice that the African American 
community faced and inspired a movement of justice and equality for 
Americans regardless of race.
  Another great American that personified this ideal was former 
Congressman Edward Ross Roybal. A true public servant to this Nation 
and advocate for equality, Congressman Roybal was a resounding voice 
for Latinos and led initiatives to advance the rights of our Nation's 
most vulnerable communities.
  Representative Roybal's life was marked by a distinguished career in 
the struggle against discrimination and the fight for equal 
opportunities for all Americans in health and education.
  Congressman Roybal brought Latino issues to the forefront of national 
debate, a legacy that continues today with the Congressional Hispanic 
Caucus which he worked so hard to found.
  Rosa Parks and Edward Roybal, through their individual actions, 
promoted the advancement of all people in this great Nation. They are 
an inspiration to all Americans, and their legacy must not be 
forgotten. We must continue to follow their steps in the fight for 
freedom, justice and equality.
  Ms. McCOLLUM of Minnesota. Mr. Speaker, I thank you for the 
opportunity to recognize and honor the life and legacy of civil rights 
pioneer Rosa Parks, who passed away recently at the age of 92.
  Ms. Parks was a daughter, a wife, a mother, a seamstress, who, like 
all of us, was trying to make a good life for herself and her family. 
On December 1, 1955, Ms. Parks refused to relinquish her seat to a 
white man in a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, and this simple 
and courageous action changed the course of American history. Her 
strength and willingness to take a stand for her rights and those of 
others sparked the beginning of the Montgomery bus boycott and paved 
the way for the historic 1964 Civil Rights Act banning racial 
discrimination in public facilities. Ms. Parks' act of courage and 
bravery inspired the modern civil rights movement that went on to 
revolutionize our country.
  Her steadfast faith in justice and equality, and the power of an 
individual to initiate change, has served as inspiration and 
encouragement for equal rights movements the world over. Millions of 
people with disabilities, and those who are discriminated against 
around the world, have looked to Ms. Parks' leadership in their claims 
for equality in the face of injustice. My constituents, and indeed this 
entire country, are grateful for her strength and courage. We as a 
country have been made better by the movement Ms. Parks ignited.
  Mr. Speaker, in remembering her greatness, her dignity, and her 
legacy, Members of this House also recently made an historic vote. When 
this House voted to allow Rosa Parks to lay in honor in the Capitol 
Rotunda, it marked one of the few occasions a citizen who did not

[[Page 24237]]

hold public office, and the first time a woman, has been recognized in 
this way. With that vote, we commemorated more than the great civil 
rights movement that her act initiated. In bestowing this honor upon 
Ms. Parks, we recognized that one person, one individual citizen, can 
have an impact, and can change lives.
  Rosa Parks' legacy is one that will lead us in continuing the fight 
for social justice and the struggle for equality for all people. We 
must all remain committed to fighting the inequities that remain in our 
country and to championing fundamental rights for all whether they are 
voting rights, or a commitment to ending poverty in America. This is 
the true legacy of Rosa Parks which will live for years and decades to 
come.
  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of 
objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Aderholt). Is there objection to the 
request of the gentleman from Michigan?
  There was no objection.
  The Clerk read the Senate concurrent resolution, as follows:

                            S. Con. Res. 61

       Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring), That, in recognition of the historic 
     contributions of Rosa Parks, her remains be permitted to lie 
     in honor in the rotunda of the Capitol from October 30 to 
     October 31, 2005, so that the citizens of the United States 
     may pay their last respects to this great American. The 
     Architect of the Capitol, under the direction and supervision 
     of the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of 
     the House of Representatives, shall take all necessary steps 
     for the accomplishment of that purpose.

  The Senate concurrent resolution was concurred in.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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