Baltimore bill calls for Day of Absence

The Baltimore City Council has voted to hold hearings on a bill that would celebrate the anniversary of Rosa Parks’ courageous stand against segregation with a Day of Absence on Dec. 1. The public will have an opportunity to testify at the expedited hearing on Nov. 16, 11:30 a.m., at City Hall.

Baltimore has thus joined New York, Boston, Detroit, Oakland and other cities where resolutions have been introduced supporting the Day of Absence Against Poverty, Racism and War in honor of Parks, who died recently. The Alabama woman 50 years ago refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, sparking the Montgomery bus boycott and the beginning of the civil rights movement.

The bill encourages “all public and private businesses and educational institutions located in Baltimore City on Dec em ber 1, 2005, to either close or allow their workers or attendees time off to attend Rosa Parks Commemoration events taking place during the normal business hours without sanctions.”

Local groups, including the Baltimore NAACP and other community, union, student, anti-war and religious groups, will hold a rally at City Hall at 12 noon on Dec. 1, followed by a march through downtown Baltimore to highlight cuts in education, health care, utility hikes and shutoffs, labor rights and police and jail abuses.

—Sharon Black