[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Page 24721]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERING MRS. ROSA PARKS

  Mr. ALEXANDER. This week we have honored the memory of Rosa Parks, a 
woman whose quiet stand for her individual rights reverberated across 
this country.
  We often discuss how far we have to go as a country in terms of race 
relations. Thinking of Rosa Parks reminds me how far we have come. In 
1955 when she refused to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery, 
African Americans in the South could not eat in the same restaurants, 
go to the same colleges, sleep in the same motels, be cared for in the 
same hospitals or compete on the same sports teams as other Americans.
  Rosa Parks' actions that day in Montgomery helped spark a movement 
that changed our country forever for the better. Condoleezza Rice, one 
of the bright minds leading our country today, rightly noted at the 
memorial service in Alabama, ``. . . that without Mrs. Parks, I would 
not be standing here today as Secretary of State.''
  Rosa Parks and those who took up the call inspired me, too. As editor 
of the student paper at Vanderbilt University, I wrote editorials 
urging desegregation of that school in 1962.
  We made great progress in those days, as we continue to do today. Our 
Nation has always been a work in progress, ever since our Founders 
signed the Declaration of Independence declaring that ``all men are 
created equal.'' We're still working to achieve that noble goal of 
recognizing our equality. But thanks to Americans like Rosa Parks, 
we've come a long way.
  Rosa Parks' courage has earned for her a noble place in the history 
of our Nation's struggle for equal opportunity. We will miss her.

                          ____________________