By Dr. Jerome V. Harris, General Officer
On March 22, 2018, the Alabama State House of Representatives took a momentous step forward that has been far too long in coming. It passed the Rosa Parks Holiday Bill and the vote was unanimous! The Honorable Kay Ivey, current governor and the first female governor of the state, has voiced her strong support and is expected to sign the bill into law as soon as possible.
This statewide law will appropriately designate the first day of December in each year as “Mrs. Rosa L. Parks Day” and it is to be a day dedicated to remembering her legacy of social change and the advancement of equality for all people. It is a legacy that was birthed in a segregated Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955, when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a city bus. Her act of courage and civil disobedience was the beginning of the Montgomery Bus Boycott that lasted 391 days and resulted in all city buses being integrated.
Rosa Parks was a well-known seamstress by trade and was employed by one of Montgomery’s leading department stores. She was a member of the St. Paul AME Church in Montgomery, where she served as a devoted member of the Stewardess Board. During my pastoral tenure, I was privileged to serve as the senior pastor of St. Paul in the early 1990s.
I strongly encourage every member of the clergy and laity in Episcopal Districts 1-13 to contact their state legislators and voice their support for the state-wide designation of a Rosa L. Parks Holiday in their state. By the grace of God, we can succeed in the Rosa L. Parks Holiday becoming a federal holiday on a national level. Not only is it an honor that is well deserved, it is one that has been far too long in coming.
In the immortal words of Theodore Parker and most eloquently echoed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Now is the time!
Rev. Dr. Jerome V. Harris is the Executive Director of Retirement Services of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
