President Obama honored what will be the 100th anniversary of Rosa Parks’ birth next week, releasing a proclamation spotlighting the civil rights figure, today. “On December 1, 1955, our Nation was forever transformed when an African-American seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white passenger,” reads the address.
“Just wanting to get home after a long day at work, Rosa Parks may not have been planning to make history, but her defiance spurred a movement that advanced our journey towards justice and equality for all.
“Though Rosa Parks was not the first to confront the injustice of segregation laws, her courageous act of civil disobedience sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott—381 days of peaceful protest when ordinary men, women and children sent the extraordinary message that second-class citizenship was unacceptable.”
Feb. 4 will mark Parks 100 th birthday, and the unveiling of a U.S. Postage stamp designed in her honor. The commander in chief has asked the nation to observe the day by participating in “service, community, and education programs,” in her honor.
Parks will also become the first Black woman to have a statue on Capitol Hill.
Click below to read the president’ entire proclamation.
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Photos: The White House
