Rosa Parks, ‘Mother of Civil Rights,’ Will Speak

Rosa Louise Parks, the catalyst for the civil rights movement that brought fame to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., will speak in San Diego tonight.

Parks, who gave birth to the movement on Dec. 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Ala., when she refused to yield her seat to a white passenger, will reflect on her life at a fund-raising banquet given by the Black Federation of San Diego. The speech will begin at 9 p.m. at the Omni Hotel.

Parks’ refusal to leave her seat led to a yearlong boycott--headed by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.--of Montgomery’s bus company and ended in the Supreme Court ruling in December, 1956, that the Montgomery bus segregation laws were unconstitutional. Parks lost her job and faced the wrath of angry white Alabamians but became a national symbol of courage. She is known as “the mother of the civil rights movement.”

“It’s ironic that she’s here because there’s some racial polarization going on the city,” said Vernon Sukumu, executive director of the San Diego Black Federation.

Councilman Wes Pratt said Thursday that he considers Parks a “heroine” and a “conscious reminder” of the struggle of civil rights.

“When she stood up, all African-Americans stood up with her, but we’ve still got a ways to go,” he said. “She is a true emancipator. She epitomizes the courage and the refusal to give up. . . . She started us on our way to a real appreciation of human rights.”

Pratt added: “For us, as San Diegans and Americans, there is still a lot of room for improvement, but she’s a reminder of the fact that none of us should give up. Until each one of us is free from poverty, ignorance and unemployment, none of us will be free, because we all suffer the implications of it.”

The fund-raiser, called “A Tribute to the Human Spirit,” costs $50 a person.