WASHINGTON – U.S. Reps. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, and Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, introduced the Rosa Park Day Act to make Dec. 1 a national federal holiday honoring Parks’ legacy.
Tuesday marked Parks’ 112th birthday. She was arrested on Dec. 1, 1955 when she refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery. Her arrest led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped spark the larger Civil Rights Movement.
Figures said Parks’ actions paved the way for him and Sewell to become members of Congress.
“Her deed is certainly one that required America to look in the mirror and ultimately be true to what is said on paper,” Figures said. “That is something that is worth acknowledging, that is something that is worth honoring, and that is something that I am proud, proud to stand in support of.”
Sewell has introduced the bill in previous Congresses. She recognized the difficulty of creating a new federal holiday, but said it’s a fight worth continuing.
“I think that in our darkest hour now, we can learn from those foot soldiers about pushing back against efforts to erase us,” Sewell said. “And so I’m inspired by it, and looking forward to continuing to get co-sponsors and look for bipartisan support for Rosa Parks Day.”
Sewell said the Trump administration has attacked Black history, making commemorating Parks’ contributions to the Civil Rights Movement and American history is critical.
“… Given the state of play when it comes to the attacks that we’ve seen on the contributions of African Americans by this administration, now more than ever, I think it’s important that we push back and that we continue to forge forward in trying to get this to be a federal holiday,” Sewell told Alabama Daily News.
Sewell mentioned during Wednesday’s press conference how the history of the Tuskegee Airmen was briefly removed from the Air Force curriculum last month after an executive order from Trump ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the federal government. The information was restored after an outcry.
Sewell called it one of the Trump Administration’s attempts “to whitewash our history and devalue the contributions of African Americans.”
The bill currently has 56 co-sponsors, all of them Democrats.
If the Rosa Parks Day Act becomes law, it would be the first federal holiday to honor a woman.