2005 Senate Joint Resolution 48
ENROLLED JOINT RESOLUTION
Relating to: honoring Ms. Rosa Louise Parks for her lifelong dedication to equal rights for all citizens, for her positive impact on American history, and for the legacy of civil rights that she has left for us to defend.
Whereas, Rosa Louise Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama, and died on October 24, 2005, in Detroit, Michigan; and
Whereas, Rosa Parks is often referred to as the mother of the civil rights movement; and
Whereas, a seamstress by trade, Rosa Parks participated in civil rights activities, large and small, her entire life; and
Whereas, Rosa Parks became Secretary of the Montgomery NAACP in 1943, the same year she was denied the right to register to vote the first of 2 times; and
Whereas, in 1945, Rosa Parks successfully registered to vote, achieving a measure of equality in citizenship that would be undermined a decade later; and
Whereas, Rosa Parks was most well known for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus in 1955; and
Whereas, that simple act of civil disobedience led to the Montgomery bus boycott and ultimately a Supreme Court ruling that prohibited discrimination in public transit; and
Whereas, the Montgomery bus boycott is widely credited as a historic turning point in the African American struggle for civil rights; and
Whereas, the resulting victories earned in civil rights and voting rights for African Americans established Rosa Parks as both a leading activist and a symbolic figure of progress in the civil rights movement; and
Whereas, Rosa Parks went on to serve a distinguished 20-year career as a staff member to the honorable Congressman John Conyers of Michigan; and
Whereas, the lifetime achievements of Rosa Parks were recognized in 1996 when she was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the senate, the assembly concurring, That the members of the Wisconsin legislature hereby honor Ms. Rosa Louise Parks for her lifelong dedication to equal rights for all citizens, for her positive impact on American history, and for the legacy of civil rights that she has left for us to defend.
