Amended in Assembly February 4, 2013

California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

House Resolution No. 5

Introduced by Assembly Members Yamada and Mitchell

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(Coauthors: Assembly Members Achadjian, Alejo, Allen, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom, Blumenfield, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Conway, Cooley, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Donnelly, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Roger Hernández, Holden, Hueso, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Logue, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Medina, Melendez, Morrell, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Patterson, Perea, John A. Pérez, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas, Stone, Ting, Torres, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, and Williams)

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January 17, 2013

House Resolution No. 5—Relative to the Commemoration of Rosa Parks’ 100th birthday.

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama, the first child of James and Leona (Edwards) McCauley; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Louise McCauley married Raymond Parks on December 18, 1932; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks, tired after a long day’s work as a seamstress, was arrested on December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks’ arrest for refusing to comply with
Montgomery’s segregation law was the impetus for the
Montgomery Bus Boycott, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
which lasted 381 days and involved more than 40,000 African
American Montgomery residents; and

WHEREAS, On November 13, 1956, the United States Supreme
Court ruled that Montgomery’s segregation law was
unconstitutional, and on December 20, 1956, Montgomery officials
were ordered to desegregate buses; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks is honored as the “Mother of the
Modern Day Civil Rights Movement,” because her quiet act of
defiance began a movement that ended legal segregation in our
country and made her an inspiration to freedom-loving people
throughout the world; and

WHEREAS, The courage and conviction of Rosa Parks laid the
foundation for equal rights for all Americans and for the Civil
Rights Act of 1964; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks was the first woman to join the
Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, and was an active volunteer
for the Montgomery Voters League; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks cofounded the Rosa and Raymond
Parks Institute for Self Development in 1987 with Elaine Eason
Steele to motivate and direct youth to achieve their highest potential
through the “Pathways to Freedom” program; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks was the recipient of many awards
including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest
civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor
Congress can bestow upon a civilian, and the first International
Freedom Conductor Award from the National Underground
Railroad Freedom Center, among many other awards and honors;
and

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks dedicated her life to the cause of human
rights and truly embodied the love of humanity and freedom; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks passed away on October 24, 2005, and
was the first woman to lie in state in the nation’s capitol; and

WHEREAS, The people of the State of California are grateful
for the bravery of Rosa Parks and her contribution to the civil
rights movement; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, That the
Assembly of the State of California hereby honors the 100th
birthday of Rosa Parks and urges all Californians to remember this
great American woman; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.