Sherrod Brown: “I rise today to recognize Rosa Parks, who died yesterday at the age of 92. Some 50 years ago, Mrs. Parks took a stand…”

“I rise today to recognize Rosa Parks, who died yesterday at the age of 92. Some 50 years ago, Mrs. Parks took a stand for freedom by sitting down. She refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man. Mrs. Parks was arrested and convicted of violating Alabama's segregation laws. Her actions sparked the Montgomery bus boycott and toppled the Jim Crow law under which she had been convicted. Mrs. Parks was not seeking attention, was not trying to become a symbol at that moment of the civil rights movement. But by taking a stand against racial inequality, her arrest personalized the injustice to Americans of faith and strong belief, of all races, and personalized the humiliation of segregation laws. {time} 2000 Rosa Parks' courage and active defiance ignited the civil rights movement. Her understanding of equality and commitment to justice made her a gifted leader of that movement. Today we mourn the loss of Mrs. Parks. We honor her personal strength, her determination, as a civil rights leader and her vision of a Nation where freedom is denied to no man and to no woman. The memory of Rosa Parks inspires the fight for social and economic justice. ____________________”