A concurrent resolution authorizing the remains of Rosa Parks to lie in honor in the rotunda of the Capitol.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me, and certainly want to first commend the chairman of the Committee on House Administration, the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Ney), and our ranking member of the committee, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Millender-McDonald), for managing our portion of this important resolution that was introduced by Senator Dodd from Connecticut.

Mr. Speaker, I am very honored to be given this opportunity to speak on the occasion of honoring this great American. As vice chairman of our Asian Pacific Congressional Caucus, I know that the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda), our chairman, would have loved to be here, but he is necessarily absent, so I am doing this on behalf of our Asian Pacific American community.

History has not been very kind to the coming of various minority groups to our Nation. The history of the African American is replete with so much of the tremendous amount of racism and bigotry that has been heaped upon these good fellow Americans.

Mr. Speaker, we have a saying in the islands, ``The leaves of the coconut tree just do not swing by themselves.'' There is a reason for it. There is a cause for it.

I did not have the privilege of knowing personally this great American woman Mrs. Rosa Parks, but I stand here before my colleagues as one who is the beneficiary of the sacrifices and the tremendous examples she has set for all Americans. I would like to say that not only did she serve as a catalyst, but she planted a seed, a seed that was planted in fertile ground, as the good book says, and what has that seed produced?

Mr. Speaker, I would like to share with my colleagues, and I will include the full text of this speech for the record that I think probably every Member should read at least 1 year, the famous speech given by this great American minister on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on that summer day in 1963. I want to share portions of this speech that was given by this great American as a result of the seed that was planted by Rosa Parks. This American minister made this most profound speech. I will share portions of that with my colleagues.

He said: ``I am happy to join you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our Nation.

``Four score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who have been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

``But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro still lives in the lonely island of poverty, in

the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. And so we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

``We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our Nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

``But there is something that I must say to my people who stand in the warm, fresh hope which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to justify our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

``I have a dream that one day this Nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: `We hold these truths to be self- evident, that all men are created equal.'

``I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

``I have a dream that one day even the State of Mississippi, a State sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

``I have a dream that my four little children one day will live in a Nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.''

This minister, Mr. Speaker, happens to be Martin Luther King, Jr., whom we all know.

This is the seed that Rosa Parks planted. The greatest American that I have ever, ever studied, idolized in my own little humble history, coming from a little village in one of those little islands, to know that this man stood, not because he is an African American, but because he was a human being, just as Rosa Parks was a human being, not because she was an African American.

I think this is what America is all about. This is what makes the greatness of our Nation, that we are able to correct those injustices and those wrongs that were committed against other people who have every perfect right to live as fellow Americans. It was done to the Japanese Americans during World War II, just as it was done to the African Americans in their history as they now just realize that the civil rights, the rights of all Americans, should be treated fairly under the Constitution and under our laws.

For that, Mr. Speaker, I make this humble homage and a special tribute to this great American lady, Rosa Parks; and I am just so happy that this resolution calls for her remains to be in the rotunda as the greatest honor of any American.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for giving me this chance to speak.

Martin Luther King, Jr.: ``I Have a Dream''

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in

history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the

history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic

shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to

millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of

withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the

long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.

One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly

crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of

discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a

lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of

material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is

still languished in the corners of American society and finds

himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here

today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a

check. When the architects of our republic wrote the

magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of

Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which

every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that

all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be

guaranteed the ``unalienable Rights'' of ``Life, Liberty and

the pursuit of Happiness.'' It is obvious today that America

has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her

citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this

sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad

check, a check which has come back marked ``insufficient

funds.''

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is

bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient

funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And

so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us

upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of

justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America

of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in

the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug

of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of

democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate

valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.

Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of

racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the

time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of

the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate

discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating

autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not

an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro

needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a

rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.

And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America

until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The

whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations

of our nation until the bright day of justice I emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who

stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of

justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we

must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.

Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by

drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must

forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and

discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to

degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must

rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with

soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro

community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people,

for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their

presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny

is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize

that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall

always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil

rights, ``When will you be satisfied?'' We can never be

satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the

unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be

satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of

travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and

the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as a

Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York

believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not

satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until ``justice rolls

down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.''

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of

great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh

from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas

where your quest--quest for freedom left you battered by the

storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police

brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering.

Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is

redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go

back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to

Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern

cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be

change.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you

today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and

tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted

in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and

live out the true meaning of its creed: ``We hold these

truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.''

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia,

the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners

will be able to sit down together at the table of

brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi,

a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering

with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an

oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day

live in a nation where they will not be judged by he color of

their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its

vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping

with the words of ``interposition'' and ``nullification''--

one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black

girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and

white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted,

and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough

places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be

made straight; ``and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed

and all flesh shall see it together.''

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to

the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain

of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able

to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a

beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will

be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle

together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom

together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day--this will be the day when all of

God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I

sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become

true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New

Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of

Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of

Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we

let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every

state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day

when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and

Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join

hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! free at last!

Thank God are free at last!

Mr. Speaker, reserving the right to object, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Ehlers) to explain the purpose of this concurrent resolution.

Mr. Speaker, under my reservation I too rise in support of Senate Concurrent Resolution 61, authorizing the use of the U.S. Capitol rotunda for the remains of Rosa Louise Parks to lie in honor on October 30 and 31 of 2005.

I stand as a very proud African American woman who stands on the shoulders of this great lady who was born Rosa Louise McCauley on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. She became a household name on December 1, 1955.

After leaving her job as a seamstress, Rosa Parks boarded a racially segregated Montgomery, Alabama, bus for home and took a seat directly behind the white section. She was asked to yield her seat to a white man by a bus driver who had evicted her from a bus 12 years prior because she had refused to enter via the rear door after paying her fare. What happened next would change America forever.

This humble, soft spoken woman refused to give up her seat and was arrested and taken to jail. While in jail, Rosa Parks did not call for her lawyer. She called for her minister. It was the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who immediately came to her aid. The move kicked off the Montgomery bus boycott and the beginning of a civil rights movement.

Because of Rosa Parks, the black citizens of Montgomery, Alabama, who comprised more than 70 percent of the bus company's business, refused to ride

the bus until the laws were changed. The Montgomery bus boycott lasted for 381 days. When the case was taken to the United States Supreme Court, the Justices declared that segregation of the Montgomery buses was illegal and officially desegregated them on December 20, 1956.

Rosa Parks and her husband, Raymond, whom she married in 1931, were fired by their employers and harassed by angry whites. They moved to Detroit, Michigan, in 1957. It was then she went to work for our beloved and dear colleague, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers), and later formed the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute.

Mr. Speaker, surely a woman as significant as this and who meant so much to not only African Americans but to all Americans deserves to be honored right here in the rotunda of the United States Capitol, the very place where in July of 1999 President William Jefferson Clinton awarded her the Congressional Gold Medal, the Nation's highest honor given to a civilian.

This concurrent resolution we are considering today is required so that both Houses may concur in the use of the rotunda, which is controlled by the Congress. This procedure was last used in 2004 following the death of the late President Ronald Reagan.

I urge my colleagues to bestow upon this great lady, Rosa Louise Parks, one last honor and make her the first nongovernmental official, first woman, and the first African American woman to lie in honor in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.

Please support this resolution allowing America to pay its final respects to the Mother of the civil rights movement, the great Rosa Louise Parks.

Mr. Speaker, I will be happy now to yield to the few Members who are here to speak on this resolution, the first of whom will be the gentleman who is the dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, who knew her so well and who served with her so admirably.

Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to object, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers).

Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to object, I thank the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) so much for his leadership and for the greatness that he has shown during the sadness.

Mr. Speaker, the next speaker we will bring forth is the vice chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus and one who is now in the process of getting a Federal building named after this great lady.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick).

Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to object, I thank the gentlewoman so much for that extraordinary tribute to such an extraordinary woman.

Mr. Speaker, the next speaker that I am asking to come forward is the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, one who spoke the other night of how he was inspired by the works that she had done.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Watt).

Mr. Speaker, that was beautifully said by the gentleman.

Further reserving the right to object, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Al Green), one of the present members of the Congressional Black Caucus, one who has served as a judge and who recognizes the laws as they were applied during the civil rights era.

Mr. Speaker, continuing to reserve the right to object, I yield to the gentlewoman from Indiana (Ms. Carson), who saw the need to bring forth this great lady to give her a Congressional Medal of Honor because of the honor she bestowed on this country.

Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to object, I thank the gentlewoman for her insight in bringing her this Congressional Medal of Honor.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), who is also a drum major for justice. His name is in the history books already. He walked with her and talked with her and helped in the development of the civil rights movement.

Mr. LEWIS from Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California for yielding to me.

I am pleased to rise today in support of this resolution. I think it is fitting and so appropriate that Rosa Parks be honored in the rotunda of the United States Capitol. By sitting down almost 50 years ago on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks was standing up. It was very dangerous, very dangerous, to do what Rosa Parks did on December 1, 1955.

I grew up only 50 miles from Montgomery, not too far from Tuskegee. I was 15 years old in 1955. I saw segregation. I saw racial discrimination. I saw

those signs that said white men, colored men; white women, colored women; white waiting; colored waiting. And if it had not been for Rosa Parks, I do not know where many of us would be today. I do not know where I would be.

It was dangerous to do what Rosa Parks did. Just think about it. A few months earlier, Emmett Till had been murdered in Mississippi, a young African American from the city of Chicago visiting Mississippi during the summer. So much violence, so much hate, so much fear. And this brave, courageous spirit ignited a movement not just in Montgomery but a movement that spread like wildfire across the American South and the Nation. She inspired some of us to sit in at lunch counters to bring an end to segregation and racial discrimination. She inspired some of us to stand-in at theaters. She inspired some of us to kneel-in at churches, and she inspired others to integrate libraries and parks and desegregate schools.

By this one simple act, Rosa Parks helped to usher in a nonviolent revolution in America, a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas.

I knew Rosa Parks. We met together at Highlander Folk School in Mount Eagle, Tennessee. In Montgomery, in Selma, in Atlanta. She served on the SCLC board, the board that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asked me to come and serve on when I was 22 years old, in 1962. So I saw a great deal of her. She came back from Detroit 40 years ago, in March of 1965, dressed so beautifully, so quiet, dignified, so proud; and she walked with us across the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the right to vote.

Many have said, others have said, that Rosa Parks was the Mother of the modern-day civil rights movement. Yes, that is true. But she was more than a mother of the modern-day civil rights movement. She should be looked upon as one of the founders of the New America, one of the founders of the beloved community, a truly interracial democracy. This woman, this one woman, this beautiful soul planted by the spirit of history by God Almighty, not to move, changed my life, changed America. I thank Rosa Parks.

Mr. Speaker, I support the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to object, I thank the great gentleman from the State of Georgia for his comments.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson- Lee), one who was a former judge and who also had to interpret those laws that were made during the civil rights era.

Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to object, I thank the distinguished gentlewoman for her comments.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the great State of Illinois (Mr. Rush), one who placed his marker on the path of civil rights in the 1960s.

Mr. Speaker, continuing my reservation, the last speaker that we have today is one who was a former Governor of American Samoa. As has been said, Rosa Parks did not just impress those of us who are African Americans, but she inspired all Americans.

I yield to the honorable gentleman from American Samoa (Mr. Faleomavaega).

Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to object, I rise in strong support of this concurrent resolution to honor an individual who chose to assert her civil rights and her human rights at a critical moment in our history and, by doing so, changed America forever. I, as an African American woman, lived in California for 50 years, although I was born in Birmingham, Alabama, along with Condoleezza Rice and Alma Vivian Johnson Powell. We all grew up together. My father, Reverend Shelly Millender, who was part of the ministers who walked with King, taught me to love and not to hate; and that is the premise by which I have built my life.

Rosa Louise Parks richly deserves this honor to be placed in our rotunda for those days for all Americans who stood up as she sat down to honor her.

Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of objection.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Millender-McDonald) for yielding.

We all are under the disadvantage of never having enough time. We could speak the rest of the day, the rest of the week, the rest of the month, the rest of the year, next year, and we still could not say enough things to give praise to Rosa Parks, who meant so much to us.

I want to be very brief and I would simply ask, if I may, to take a part of the Record that was done in Special Orders the night before last and graft it into this section of our Record so that it will appear here. The Congressional Black Caucus, headed by the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Davis) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) of Michigan, the two States to which Rosa Parks had the most concrete and physical connection, led that Special Order, and a number of members of the Congressional Black Caucus came and spoke, including myself.

Mr. Speaker, I would ask unanimous consent that we make that a part of the Record of today.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) for yielding.

I was trying to decide how to approach this issue and decided that probably there were two things I need to do: number one, I want to thank the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Davis), my good friend and colleague, and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers), my good friend and colleague, the two States with whom Rosa Parks probably had the strongest physical connections, for convening this Special Order for us to pay tribute to Rosa Parks.

I have listened to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) and the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Davis) and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) and my other colleagues talk about some of their personal connections to Rosa Parks. One would think that maybe the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus would have some personal stories, too; but when I reflect, I can only say that I never met Rosa Parks, nor for that matter but for the fact that Martin Luther King spoke at my high school graduation in 1963 did I ever meet Martin Luther King.

So why would we be here talking about somebody that we have never met? Because they have had an impact on our lives. What would compel a person to go visit a bus stop in Alabama? Simply because you knew that there was a particular significance to that bus stop, that that was the stop at which Rosa Parks got on the bus.

I cannot talk about the personal things about Rosa Parks that some of my colleagues have talked about. I can only talk about the impact that she had on my life and the lives of other people who viewed her from a distance and respected and admired her gentle but defiant stand, the stand that she took actually by sitting down and refusing to stand up, and by knowing that it had a tremendous impact on everybody around us as we were growing up, because by her sitting down and refusing to stand up, it allowed other people to stand up and straighten their backs and raise their shoulders and look up and start to move in a direction that we had not been moving before, starting with a bus boycott, and then sit-ins and other public accommodations and the entry of Martin Luther King as a leader of a whole series of things that started to take place.

What does that say for us who never met this wonderful woman, except from a distance? It says that there are probably many, many, many people who are watching us and would it not be a wonderful tribute to have somebody someday pay tribute to us who never, ever met us in person, by saying this person had an impact on my life.

I cannot think of a higher way to pay tribute to her. She had an impact on my life, and I cannot think of a greater challenge to issue to my colleagues in this body, to people who may be watching around the Nation, than to say what a wonderful tribute to have somebody think that you could impact their lives by simply sitting down or taking a stand for what you know is right.

We have that opportunity every single day, and I am delighted to pay tribute to Rosa Parks for exercising that opportunity and for allowing me to stand taller on her shoulders, on that giant commitment that she made.

Mr. Speaker, I do want to spend one moment, if I may, talking about the underlying resolution. We have not heard much of a whimper of opposition to it, and I do not anticipate any opposition to it. But when we are doing something for the first time, there is always going to be somebody who would raise the question, raise a question, and the one question that several people have raised is are we creating a precedent here. I want to address that because I think we need some benchmarks for this for future Congresses and others to take into account.

This is the way I view this. Our Capitol and its Rotunda stand as a monument to our democracy. There are some principles upon which our democracy is founded that were articulated by the Founding Fathers. As most people know, the Founding Fathers articulated the very highest principles for

our country, and they were just exquisite principles.

Unfortunately, the Founding Fathers did not necessarily at that time intend for all of those principles to apply to everybody. They did not apply to women, for example. They certainly were not intended to apply to African Americans.

The standard that I want to articulate here, I think, that undergirds this resolution and the authority to have the body of Rosa Parks lie in honor in the Rotunda is that more than perhaps anybody that we can think of, she extended those principles of the Founding Fathers in a way that they apply universally to all of us.

I am not going to dwell anymore on that because I do not want to start trying as an individual to start articulating a standard for having somebody lie in honor in the Rotunda, but for those people who may be worried about it setting a precedent or worried about how future Congresses are going to decide whether to do or not to do the same thing, let me advance the proposition that the role that Rosa Parks played in our democracy for some people, for all people, is as profound, as important as the role that the Founding Fathers played when they articulated a set of principles, because the principles do not mean anything unless they apply to all citizens of this country.

That is what Rosa Parks was fighting for. That is what we ought to continue to fight for, and the highest tribute that we could pay to Rosa Parks going forward is to continue her fight, the fight that she sat down on a bus; that made it possible for us to stand up and lift our shoulders and lift our visions and really, really aspire to believing that the principles that were articulated by our Founding Fathers apply to each and every one of us.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me time, and I hope I have not abused it by talking primarily about the resolution and its place in history, but I just thought we needed to put that marker down at this place so that somebody will understand why this powerful lady has this honor and how she honors us and the principles that our government stands on by lying in honor in our Rotunda.

Mr. Speaker, whether it is appropriate to object and reserve the right to object, of course I am not objecting.

I thank the distinguished gentlewoman from California for yielding to me.

And might I offer how grand it is in a time such as this to have her appropriately placed in such a leadership role. Her role tracks the specialness of this day and the reason we stand, which is to honor a woman of greatness, Rosa Parks, and to support the resolution of the Senate that asked of this body the opportunity for her to lie in honor.

I am very proud to have been an original cosponsor of the House resolution, authored by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers), but we are even more gratified to be able to take the Senate resolution agreed to by the Senate last evening and place it at the desk for its agreement.

I too want to focus as much on her life and legacy as I do on this resolution, because even as we speak in glorified terms on the floor of the House, I know that there will be the sense of wondering about the interpretation of lying in honor and the reason thereof.

So many of us in our lifetime have had the privilege of weaving in and out of the life of Rosa Parks, either by being mere beneficiaries in the academic institutions that we have been able to journey through or in the sheer presence by being alongside of her or with her. I am honored in my adult life to have had her come through the United States Congress to be in meetings with her and, with a smile on my face, to even have a picture taken with Rosa Parks.

I say that because these are small measures of the association that many of us have had, but we treasure it because of the enormity of her life.

So the reason I think this resolution is so key is because rather than call her a hero or shero, she is iconic. This is a singular moment in history that really stopped the world because we will be asked, she is lying in state and there are a number of others, what is the precedent being set? So I want to classify this as iconic.

When Rosa Parks sat down, the world stopped. America was no longer the America as we knew it, the fact that it was a single, very petite woman with not a large voice but a smiling spirit that stopped the wheels of segregation in America. They were churning. They were violent. They were intimidating. They were very frightening. They were inhibiting. They were stopping the Bill of Rights. And Rosa Parks felt that she too born in America, yet two- thirds of a person as a slave, she thought it was appropriate for her to be able to acknowledge the fact that colored people, black people, Negro people no longer needed to take the back of the bus, the back of America, the back of the rights, the back of the Constitution, the back of the Bill of Rights.

And it was Rosa Parks who sat down and challenged that bus driver, who may have been on that day, December 1, simply a bus driver in Montgomery, Alabama; but he stood as the sheer brick wall of segregation in America that we had not been able to pierce. But yet that day sprung forth this Montgomery improvement association and the complete boycotting for some 300-plus days, the litigation, civil rights litigation, that ultimately resulted in the breaking of the segregation of buses and accommodation in Montgomery, Alabama, that then led to the journey toward the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as my colleague has mentioned, and the 1965 Voter Rights Act that occurred and broke open through her singular act the wall that had stopped America from being America, by dividing us through the heinous divisiveness of race.

Now, race still matters in America. But where we are today, 40 and 50 years past, the act that she created put us where we are today. That is why this resolution should be categorized as iconic, signaling a single moment in history that so very few of us can ever account for.

And let me just say these few remarks. I feel a kinship with her because I worked for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during the time that she was a board member, during the life span of Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. I served on the Select Committee of Assassinations in this House as a young lawyer, investigating the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and President John F. Kennedy, two catastrophic American tragedies that impacted the lives of those of us who lived at that time.

For anyone who lived, we asked the question whether America could survive. But we were comforted by the fact that a lady named Rosa Parks still lived and carried forward that simpleness and simplicity that if I could stop America in her tracks and change her from a segregated divisive and unruly kid, if you will, then we could survive and overcome these catastrophic events.

So today I rise in support of this resolution alongside the story of her very important history. But I rise because it is a glorious day in this body, a historic day, that an African American woman, known most of her life as a colored woman, whose ancestors came first from the bottom of the belly of a slave boat, can now lie in honor because Members of Congress from the bowels of the Deep South, of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, where the segregation line was drawn, will in unanimous consent agree that she should lie in state because we will agree that her singular action was one that moved America to the part of America that we would hope that she could be. And we move this day to honor her and make this final commitment that we have not arrived yet. We are not yet finished. The job is not yet done.

To Rosa Parks, as she rests in peace, may it be our commitment that we will continue to fight and continue to agitate nonviolently until America, yes, America, reaches her promise.

May you rest in peace, my sister, Rosa Parks.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the floor leader, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Millender-McDonald), for her kindness and her leadership; and I, of course, am very proud that the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Ehlers) is leading this concurrent resolution on the other side of the aisle.

I am happy to also see my colleague, the honorable gentlewoman from Detroit, Michigan (Ms. Kilpatrick) and, of course, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, the gentlewoman from Indiana (Ms. Carson), and many others here on the floor.

Both leaders on both sides of the aisle have aptly described the phenomenal career, activities, and legacy that Rosa Parks leaves behind. It is only my task to tell my colleagues as the one who knows her better than anybody in the Congress about the indomitable spirit of Rosa Louise Parks, that is to say, that there were two parts to Rosa Louise Parks.

One was her calm, respectful, dignified exterior. She was a very humble woman. She always spoke in a very calm voice. I can say I have never seen her angry or in a debate mode in her life. She has never gotten into any argument, and I use this analogy as carefully as I can, but she reminds me of what I think Mother Teresa was like. I mean, she had her own sphere of serenity; and yet, at the same time, there were three things that she was extremely deeply connected and committed to.

One, she was a very religious person and she did not wear her religion on her sleeve, that is to say, she did not quote from the Bible or make religious references; but she was deeply committed to her African Methodist Episcopal church, and one of the services will be in Montgomery, Alabama.

The other matter that was very deeply held was her fierce opposition to segregation, and she could not have suspected that that deep opposition would lead her to be the main participant in a Federal case that went up to the United States Supreme Court and dealt the death blow not only to segregation, to the bus system in Montgomery, but it dealt a death blow to the segregated systems that existed as a way of life in many places in the United States. That, plus the Brown v. Board of Education decision the year earlier was the death knell.

It has already been observed that as humble as she was, it is hard to remember that she was an activist. She was not a person hoping that something good would happen. She was the first member to join the Montgomery chapter of NAACP, and she went through training classes, and so without any premeditation, no coordination with lawyers or civil rights organizations, and I have talked with her about this, that was the thing on everybody's mind in Detroit, is that it was not a matter of her feet being tired that day after a long day's work as a seamstress in this department store, but what happened inside her, the result of her belief system, her commitment to justice, led her that day to once again refuse to give up her seat and go to the back of the bus.

They begged her, please, lady, you do not know what you are getting into because you are going to get arrested and prosecuted today; and as a matter of fact, I think she did know fully that she was taking her life, her safety into her own hands.

As a result of this, not only did she break down segregation, she earned her title, as has been referred to, as the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement because it was she that brought in this 26-year-old Baptist minister named Martin Luther King, Jr., who quickly began to organize the total support that was coming up to Rosa Parks.

So what happened then, of course, is a matter of history. She came to Detroit, not because she wanted to. She came because she was driven out of Montgomery, Alabama. How differently history would have been had she been able to stay there, because even though I had met her before I came to Congress, we put our arms around her, but there was some nervousness about who was Rosa Parks. She did not put out press releases. She did not organize. She was just always there and always willing to help.

What finally happened is that this Member of Congress said, as a result of the first time I ever ran for anything, I said if I can win a seat to the highest legislative body in this land, the first person I am going to ask to join my staff would be Rosa Louise Parks. She did not ask me for a job. I was honored to have her, and I do not mind telling my colleagues, she was a celebrity staffer. More people came to visit Rosa Parks in my congressional office than came to visit Congressman John Conyers, and I am so proud of her.

There are many things that we can talk about that I am going to be putting into writing and that we will be observing, but I want to thank the leadership of this Congress who have distinguished themselves.

We got complete cooperation from the majority leader in the Senate, the minority leader in the Senate, Senator Obama, Senators Levin and Stabenow and many others in the other body; but it was in the House of Representatives that the Speaker of the House joined immediately with the Congressional Black Caucus's request for transportation and for the privilege of having this be the first woman to ever be honored by her remains being on display in the rotunda of the Capitol of the United States.

I am so proud of my colleagues and all who have made what was a very difficult set of arrangements between Montgomery, Washington, DC, and Detroit possible. I am in the debt of the gentlewoman from California who has admirably brought this resolution to the floor.