The Rosa Parks Day Act, a bill that would make Dec. 1, the date Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give her bus seat to a white man, a federal holiday, has obtained the backing of the Congressional Black Caucus.
According to the Montgomery Advertiser, the bill was the first introduced by Rep. Terri Sewell, a Democrat from Selma, Alabama. Parks’ arrest began the Montgomery Bus Boycott, led by a young Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. If approved, Rosa Parks Day would mark the first federal holiday to honor a Black woman, or any woman, period, in American history.
Rosa Parks Day is already celebrated in Montgomery, Alabama, on Dec. 1, as well as in Ohio, Oregon, and Texas. California, which first celebrated Rosa Parks Day, chose Feb. 4, the date of Parks’ birthday, to commemorate the late civil rights activist. According to CNN, at a news conference on Nov. 29, Sewell made her case for why Parks should be honored with a federal holiday, saying, “This is not just about Black history. It’s about American history.”
Read the source article at Black Enterprise