Rosa Parks remembered in downtown Montgomery
People in downtown Montgomery gathered Friday night to remember Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus 68 years ago helped spark the Civil Rights Movement.
Events began with a rally outside of Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, which was the church that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., pastored in the 1950s.
Then a Unity Walk began down Dexter Avenue that ended at the Rosa Parks Library and Museum.
Action 8 News spoke with participants who say they support U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-7th District) in her efforts to establish December 1 as a federal holiday in Parks’ memory. It would be the first such holiday to honor a Black woman in the U.S.
“We need to realize that we have people in our race that need to be honored. What they did for us will never be forgotten, and so I’m just praying that Representative Sewell will be able to initiate that federal holiday,” Loretta Fuller said.
“I think as the mother of civil rights, I think it’s a tragedy and a travesty that we do not have a date that’s honoring her. There are a whole lot of us who are benefiting from what she did because she refused to get up off that seat, and so everyone, not just me, but everyone, we are benefiting from her sacrifices and so there should be a day where we can honor her and think about her service,” Rev. Allen Jerome Sims of Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church said.
Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955. That led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted for more than a year.
Here is a list of other Rosa Parks events happening in Montgomery through Monday.
