February 9, 2009: Rosa Parks Day in the State of California

Senator Feinstein testified during the 110th Congress.

Mr. President, Rosa Parks has been described as the "Mother of the Modern Day Civil Rights Movement."
Her actions on a Montgomery bus in 1955 sparked one of the Nation's largest movements against racial segregation: the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Due to those brave actions, Rosa Parks became an icon of civil disobedience. In 2005, Congress voted to preserve the legacy of Rosa Parks by authorizing a statue of her to be placed in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall.

A statue of Rosa Parks would be a fitting tribute to the struggle for equal rights for all Americans. But two years later, the statue has not been obtained. It is time to remove the hurdles, and ensure that Rosa Parks is honored as Congress intended.
The law designated Congress's Joint Committee on the Library to obtain the statue. But it was later determined that the Joint Committee does not have the technical ability or resources to enter into contracts or pay for the statue.

And now that law is set to expire on December 1, 2007, without ever achieving its intended goal. So, to correct the problems in the original law, I have introduced a stand alone bill that would: designate the Architect of the Capitol as the agent of the Joint Committee; and extend the deadline by 2 more years.

This legislation would allow for the Architect of the Capitol to distribute funds on behalf of the Joint Committee on the Library.
This legislation has been cosponsored by seven other Senators, including: Senators Bennett, Kerry, Durbin, Levin, Schumer, Dodd, and Stabenow.

It is so important that we honor this great American. Mrs. Parks' actions on a single day in December 1955 changed the lives of so many who followed her. Let me tell you a little more about Rosa Parks:

Mrs. Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley, February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, AL. Her parents were a carpenter and a teacher.
Rosa Parks grew up and lived in a segregated South. And when she married, she and her husband became active in the local NAACP chapter.

On December 1, 1955, after a day of work at a department store in downtown Montgomery, AL, Rosa Parks boarded a bus to go home. She paid her fare, and took an empty seat in the first row of seats reserved for Blacks. As the bus traveled along its route, all of the White-only seats in the bus filled up. When the bus reached its next stop, several White passengers boarded.
As was standard practice at that time, the busdriver told the Black passengers seated in the rows behind the White-only section to move. This included Mrs. Parks and three other passengers.

The three other Black passengers moved at the bus driver's insistence. But Mrs. Parks did not. As she recalled in her autobiography, she was simply "tired of giving in" People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.

This action of civil disobedience sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which became one of the Nation's largest movements against racial segregation. ( A young Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was selected to lead the Montgomery Improvement Association and later the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in support of Rosa Parks act of courage. )

Rosa Parks was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. She received a Congressional Gold Medal in 1999. And in 2005, Congress voted to honor her with a statue in the U.S. Capitol.

The Architect of the Capitol is prepared to work with the National Endowment for the Arts to find suitable artists and statues to be considered for this honor. But more importantly, this legislation would ensure that Rosa Parks, an American hero, is honored as she so deserves in our nation’s capitol.