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October 28, 2005: NORTON SAYS UNIQUE ROSA PARKS ROTUNDA HONOR & HER EXAMPLE SPEAK TO DISENFRANCHISED

January 9, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 28, 2005

NORTON SAYS UNIQUE ROSA PARKS ROTUNDA HONOR AND HER EXAMPLE SPEAK TO DISENFRANCHISED D.C.

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) joined Members of the Congressional Black Caucus in a successful effort today that got Congress to allow Rosa Parks to lie in state in the rotunda on Sunday, October 30 (6 p.m. – Midnight) and Monday, October 31 (7 a.m.-10 a.m.). Parks is the first woman and only the second Black to be given an honor reserved almost exclusively for federal officials who have held the highest offices. The first black given this honor was Jacob Chestnut, one of two Capitol Police officers shot and killed in the Capitol in 1998.

In a commentary to be head on public radio station WPFW (89.3 FM) during the next few days, Congresswoman Norton said that the reason for the honor was that Rosa Parks met the highest standards of service to her country "in initiating the nonviolent revolution for equal rights in America" at great personal risk to herself. Norton said the she hoped that D.C. residents "who still do not have equal rights in our own Congress, especially hear the message of her sacrifice: Free yourself." Norton’s commentary follows.

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Congress has voted to allow Rosa Parks to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda, an honor reserved almost exclusively for federal officials who have held high office. Ms. Parks has won this honor because she met the highest standards of service to her country. Her service was in setting the example that initiated a nonviolent revolution for equal rights in America. After 400 years of slavery and discrimination, the first act of the civil rights revolution could have been a bomb. Throughout human history, revolutions usually have been made by such incitement or by whole armies. Our country is fortunate that instead, one woman sparked the civil rights revolution with a lonely act of conscience.


Fifty years later, time may blur the enormous personal risk Rosa Parks took. History records that black men have been lynched for less. So brave was her act in the South, that even those of us who were young, in school, and had nothing to lose, did not engage in the first sit-ins until five years later. The act of one woman finally led to the first mass movement, the missing ingredient in the civil rights struggle. In an era of peacock leaders who strut their stuff, may her selfless act be our guide.

And may D.C. residents who still do not have equal rights in our own Congress especially hear the message of her sacrifice: Free yourself.