WHEREAS, Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama, the first child of James and Leona (Edwards) McCauley; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Louise McCauley married Raymond Parks on December 18, 1932; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks, tired after a long day’s work as a seamstress, was arrested on December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks’ arrest for refusing to comply with Montgomery’s segregation law was the impetus for the Montgomery Bus Boycott, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which lasted 381 days and involved more than 40,000 African American Montgomery residents; and

WHEREAS, On November 13, 1956, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Montgomery’s segregation law was unconstitutional, and on December 20, 1956, Montgomery officials were ordered to desegregate buses; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks is honored as the “Mother of the Modern Day Civil Rights Movement,” because her quiet act of defiance began a movement that ended legal segregation in our country and made her an inspiration to freedom-loving people throughout the world; and

WHEREAS, The courage and conviction of Rosa Parks laid the foundation for equal rights for all Americans and for the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks was the first woman to join the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, and was an active volunteer for the Montgomery Voters League; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks cofounded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development in 1987 with Elaine Eason Steele to motivate and direct youth to achieve their highest potential through the “Pathways to Freedom” program; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks was the recipient of many awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor Congress can bestow upon a civilian, and the first International Freedom Conductor Award from the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, among many other awards and honors; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks dedicated her life to the cause of human rights and truly embodied the love of humanity and freedom; and

WHEREAS, Rosa Parks passed away on October 24, 2005, and was the first woman to lie in state in the nation’s capitol; and

WHEREAS, The people of the State of California are grateful for the bravery of Rosa Parks and her contribution to the civil rights movement; now, therefore, be it