[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 273 Referred in Senate (RFS)]
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. CON. RES. 273
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
December 12, 2005
Received and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Recognizing the 50th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott.
Whereas on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, an African American seamstress in
Montgomery, Alabama, was arrested for refusing to obey a busdriver's
order to give up her seat on a city bus for a White passenger boarding
the bus, as required by city ordinance;
Whereas outrage over the arrest of Rosa Parks initiated a meeting that weekend
between the Reverend Ralph
Abernathy, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Jo Ann Robinson, who was
the head of the Women's Political Council, and E.D. Nixon, who was the
Montgomery official for the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, also known as the NAACP;
Whereas this meeting resulted in the announcement of a large-scale boycott
against Montgomery city buslines;
Whereas ministers voiced the communal outrage over Rosa Parks's arrest during
Sunday services, unifying the African American community in Montgomery
as the ministers conveyed the message of the boycott;
Whereas members of the community continued to spread the news of the boycott by
disseminating leaflets encouraging participation in the boycott;
Whereas through nonviolent means and the support of ministers and African
American and White citizens alike, the Montgomery bus boycott and the
beginning of the civil rights movement gained national attention;
Whereas Rosa Parks became and remains an icon of pride and dignity, establishing
a standard that has continued through the civil rights movement;
Whereas Martin Luther King, Jr., became the president of the Montgomery
Improvement Association, also known as the MIA, and helped organize the
boycott with other civil rights leaders, such as Ralph Abernathy; and
Whereas the Montgomery bus boycott ended after the United States Supreme Court,
on November 13, 1956, upheld a Federal district court ruling declaring
segregation on buses unconstitutional: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),
That Congress--
(1) recognizes and honors the 50th anniversary of the
Montgomery bus boycott; and
(2) recognizes the historical significance of the
Montgomery bus boycott to the United States.
Passed the House of Representatives December 6, 2005.
Attest:
KAREN L. HAAS,
Clerk.