Remarks of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Mistress of Ceremonies At the Memorial Service Honoring Mrs. Rosa Parks at Metropolitan AME Church

Remarks of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Mistress of Ceremonies At the Memorial Service Honoring Mrs. Rosa Parks at Metropolitan AME Church

Washington, DC

When Congress broke with precedent and voted to allow Rosa Parks to lie in honor at the Capitol Rotunda, we commemorated more than the great civil rights movement that her act initiated. We recognized the unique and extraordinary contribution of an African American woman to her country. Her simple act of civil disobedience in refusing to relinquish her seat on demand from a white man on a segregated bus was the functional equivalent of a non-violent shot heard around the world. Grievances like those of African Americans after 400 years of slavery and humiliating discrimination had been resolved by violent resolution throughout human history. Our country is enormously in Rosa Parks' debt because the revolution that led to the end of government and legally sanctioned discrimination began with a non-violent revolutionary act, setting an example that endured. The significance of Rosa Parks' peaceful defiance of segregation went well beyond her impact on the great men and women who led our movement or the inspiration she gave to kids like me to do sit-ins. The act of one gentle woman led to the first mass movement for equal rights, and it was so large, so insistent, and so effective that its demands became impossible to refuse. This movement was Rosa Parks' special gift to her people and to those who joined them, especially the residents of the District of Columbia, who still feed from her inspiration to achieve equality with other Americans, including equal voting rights in the Congress. In great humility, Rosa Parks' gift was not the message that I am doing this to free you. Her message was far more direct: Free Yourself.

http://www.norton.house.gov/issues2.cfm?id=11310