Alabama U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-7th District) will once again attempt to establish a federal holiday in memory of Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks.
This week she is scheduled to announce that she will introduce a bill in the U.S. House to make December 1 an annual federal holiday. Newly-elected Alabama U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures (D-2nd District) and other U.S. House members are expected to join her. The bill would officially designate December 1st as a federal holiday commemorating the historic arrest of Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama.
On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. Her arrest helped spark the Montgomery Bus Boycott, one of the most consequential events of the Civil Rights Movement.
While several states have adopted their own holidays honoring Parks, Sewell said there is currently no federal holiday recognizing her contribution to the Civil Rights Movement and to the nation.
Sewell has tried to get a bill passed before but it hasn’t made it out of Congress.
