With Rosa Parks Day, Alabama moves toward recognition of its true heroes
This past Saturday, the state of Alabama marked its first Rosa Parks Day.
It was a significant step toward recognizing the state's prominent civil rights activists.
Sixty-three years ago 鈥� on Dec. 1, 1955 鈥� Parks was arrested and jailed for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
During a ceremony at Alabama State University, historian Rolundus Rice called it the 鈥渕ost faithful and fortuitous arrest of the 20th 肠别苍迟耻谤测.鈥�
We all know what happened next: Dr. King led a yearlong bus boycott that ignited the civil rights movement. And a federal lawsuit led the U.S. Supreme Court to outlaw Alabama鈥檚 segregated buses.
When she died in 2005, Parks became the first woman to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. Earlier this year, the Alabama to proclaim Dec. 1 as Rosa Parks Day, making it the fifth state to honor her.
It鈥檚 long overdue.
Still, Rosa Parks Day is not an official state holiday in Alabama 鈥� unlike Robert E. Lee Day, Confederate Memorial Day and Jefferson Davis鈥� Birthday.
Each of those days are paid holidays for public employees.
Alabama is not alone in continuing to pay homage to the Confederacy with state holidays. In our most recent 听report, we found that five states observe nine holidays commemorating the Confederacy.
In addition, there remain more than 1,700 monuments and other Confederate symbols in public spaces across the South and the nation. They were installed over many decades to glorify the Confederacy and white supremacy 鈥� and, for the most part, to promote a false narrative about the Civil War.
The Civil War ended 153 years ago. And the Confederacy, as former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu has said, was on the 鈥渨rong side of humanity.鈥�
We believe it鈥檚 long past time for the South to bury the myth of the Lost Cause and to celebrate 鈥渢he South鈥檚 real heroes,鈥� as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called civil rights activists like Rosa Parks.
Photo听by Hannah Baldwin
