NY City Council committee backs Rosa Parks Day

A number of activists testified at a Nov. 18 public hearing at City Hall sponsored by the Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Intergroup Relations of the New York City Council in support of Resolution No. 1240—which calls for the city to officially recognize Dec. 1 as Rosa Parks Day.

Larry Holmes, Charles Barron, Barron's Legislative Director, N. Joy Simmons and Domenic Recchia.

Dec. 1 is the 50th anniversary of the day in 1955 when Rosa Parks, a Black seamstress, refused to relinquish her seat on a racially segregated bus in Montgomery, Ala. This single act of defiance proved to be a catalyst for the historic Montgomery bus boycott of 40,000 predominantly Black people, which began on Dec. 5. The successful boycott, which defeated the segregationist laws on the transit buses in 1956, propelled the modern-day civil-rights movement throughout the South.

Parks died on Oct. 24 at age 92.

The Million Worker March Movement, Troops Out Now Coalition, Fight Imperialism-Stand Together and others initiated organizing for a Dec. 1 National Day of Absence against War, Poverty and Racism, to shore up the social-justice movement throughout the United States. Day of Absence organizers are urging no work, no school and no shopping on Dec. 1 to protest against endless U.S. wars and occupation abroad, especially in Iraq, and the war at home in the form of cutbacks, loss of jobs, low wages and all forms of repression.

These protests will pay special attention to the plight of Hurricane Katrina survivors who are demanding the right to return to New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast. FEMA is threatening to evict tens of thousands of survivors from their temporary housing, including those in New York.

Nationally coordinated actions will take place on the East Coast, West Coast, in the North and South. In New York, a march and rally will take place on Wall Street from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m.

The Dec. 1 resolution was introduced by Councilmember Charles Barron and a dozen more councilmembers at an Oct. 27 news conference. It reads in part, “December 1st shall annually be observed as Rosa Parks Commemoration Day in New York City, and encouraging all businesses in the City, both public and private, to either close on December 1st or allow the many workers and students in the City who will want to attend Rosa Parks Commemoration events taking place during normal business hours, to take the day off, or leave work and school early with impunity.”

Speaker after speaker took the floor to express support for Rosa Parks Day. They included Nellie Bailey of the Harlem Tenants Council, the Rev. Herbert Daughtry of House of the Lord Church, Denise Outram representing Man hat tan Borough Pres i dent C. Virginia Fields, Michael Hardy of the Na tion al Action Net work, Nana Soul of Artists and Activists United for Peace, Mia Cruz and LeiLani Dowell of FIST, Larry Holmes of the Troops Out Now Coalition, New York City Comptroller William Thompson Jr., Erik-Anders Nilsson of the Jersey City Peace Movement, and Navy veteran and counter-recruiter Dustin Langley. Jazz artist Consuela Lee, a participant in the bus boycott, sent a message to the hearing.

One of the highlights of the hearing was when Clarence Thomas, a leader of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in San Francisco and MWMM co-coordinator, presented MWMM T-shirts to Barron and Councilmember Domenic Recchia Jr., who chaired the proceedings. Thomas also brought a copy of a Rosa Parks Day resolution that was recently passed by the Oakland, Calif., city council. Similar resolutions have been passed in Boston, Cleveland, Detroit and Baltimore.

After hearing a number of the testifiers, the council committee unanimously passed the Parks resolution. The resolution will go before the entire City Council for a vote on Nov. 30.

Upon hearing the FIST organizers speak about the impact of Parks’ action on young people and also about a FIST march and rally at Union Square on Dec. 1, Recchia announced that he will send a letter to the schools chancellor to urge all schools to recognize Rosa Parks Day.