Bill Text: NJ AR173 | 2012-2013 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Honors Rosa Parks on 100th anniversary of birth year.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-06-06 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly State Government Committee [AR173 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2012-AR173-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman CHRIS A. BROWN
District 2 (Atlantic)
Assemblywoman SHEILA Y. OLIVER
District 34 (Essex and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Honors Rosa Parks on 100th anniversary of birth year.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Assembly Resolution honoring Rosa Parks on the 100th anniversary of the year of her birth.
Whereas, Rosa Louise McCauley, known to the world as Rosa Parks, was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama, the first child of James and Leona (Edwards) McCauley; and
Whereas, In December 1943, Rosa Parks first became active in the civil rights movement when she joined the Montgomery, Alabama, chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the first woman to do so, and was elected secretary; and
Whereas, Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955, in Montgomery for refusing to give up her seat to a white man in the front of a segregated bus in Montgomery, an action which made her stand for civil rights legendary and helped to spark the civil rights movement in this country; and
Whereas, Rosa Parks' arrest for refusing to comply with Montgomery's segregation laws was the impetus for a 381-day boycott of Montgomery's buses by approximately 42,000 African Americans, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and
Whereas, On November 13, 1956, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Browder v. Gayle that Montgomery's segregation law was unconstitutional, and on December 20, 1956, Montgomery officials were ordered to desegregate buses; and
Whereas, Since that time, Rosa Parks has been honored as the "mother of the modern day civil rights movement," because of her refusal to bow to segregation and for her courage, which inspired others in the civil rights movement to challenge and abolish the many legal barriers against African Americans then in place in this country; and
Whereas, The civil rights movement inspired by Rosa Parks resulted in the enactment of numerous federal civil rights laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Civil Rights Act of 1965; and
Whereas, In 1987, Rosa Parks co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development in Detroit, Michigan, with Elaine Easton Steele, for the purpose of motivating and directing young people to achieve their highest potential through the "Pathways to Freedom" program; and
Whereas, Between 1965 and 1988, Rosa Parks served as a secretary and receptionist to John Conyers, a Detroit area African American member of the United States House of Representatives; and
Whereas, Rosa Parks was the recipient of many awards and honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, the highest honor Congress can bestow upon a civilian, and the first International Freedom Conductor Award from the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, in Cincinnati, Ohio; and
Whereas, Upon her death in 2005, Rosa Parks was the first woman and second non-United States government official to lie in honor in the United States Capitol Rotunda, and on February 27, of this year, Parks became the first African American woman to have a statue of her likeness erected in the National Statuary Hall in the capitol; and
Whereas, Given her importance to the nation's civil rights movement and her many honors, it is fitting and proper for this House to honor Rosa Parks on the 100th anniversary of the year of her birth; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. This House honors Rosa Parks on the 100th anniversary of the year of her birth.
2. Duly authenticated copies of this resolution, signed by the Speaker of the General Assembly and attested by the Clerk thereof, shall be transmitted to her family and to the NAACP.
STATEMENT
This Assembly Resolution honors Rosa Parks on the 100th anniversary of the year of her birth.
