Brave deeds were commemorated during a ceremony honoring a national civil rights icon and historian and activist from north-central Florida.
The Rosa Parks Quiet Courage Committee held Park’s refusal to leave her seat on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama, to mark the 66th anniversary of Parks.
The event took place on Wednesday at the Rosa Parks RTS Transfer Station at 700 SE Third St., across from Depot Park.
The station was renamed in 2008 by the Gainesville City Commission after a successful lobbying and fundraising campaign in honor of parks.
Karen Cole-Smith, the second vice president of the committee, presided over the ceremony.
“A lot of people thought I was tired. I was tired of indulging in something that I knew was unfair, “said Cole-Smith, reciting part of what Parks wrote in her memoir – Rosa Parks: My Story – that Parks wrote with the deceased University of Florida English professor Jim. Wrote Haskins.
Known as the “mother” of the civil rights movement, Parks took a stand when she refused to give up a city bus seat for a white passenger, thus initiating the movement. Her act of defiance on December 1, 1955 in Montgomery and her arrest prompted the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., led a bus boycott protesting the arrest of Parks and racist laws in Montgomery.
The theme of the event was “Recalling Rosa, A New Call for Courage”.
Vivian Filer, first vice-president of the committee, greeted the audience and Erma Sams, secretary of the committee, shared the history of the committee.
The program included a proclamation presented by Gainesville Mayor Lauren Poe and freedom songs were sung by Kali Blount and Annie Pearl Curtis.
Guest speakers included Charles Chestnut IV, Commissioner of Alachua County, the President of NAACP Alachua County, Evelyn Foxx, Tony Jones, Chief of the Gainesville Police Department, Martin Luther King Jr., Commission President Rodney Long, Founder and President of the Martin Luther King Jr. Commission of Florida, Gainesville District 1 City Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker, Gainesville District 2 City Commissioner Harvey Ward and Alachua County Sheriff Clovis Watson Jr.
The late Patricia Hilliard-Nunn, Ph.D., a founding and longtime member of the committee, was remembered during the ceremony.
About $ 11,000 was donated by the local community, various organizations, and groups to pay for a bronze plaque with a picture of parks.
Rev. Milford L. Griner, president of the committee he founded in 2006, presented Hilliard-Nunn’s husband, Kenneth Nunn, Ph.D., professor at Levin College of Law, University of Florida, with a plaque in honor of his wife.
Nunn is also the deputy director of the Law School’s Center for Children and Families, and Dr. Patricia Hilliard-Nunn Memorial Racial Justice Term Professor.
“Her legacy as a historian, activist, agent for community change will always be in our lives,” said Griner. “We will always cherish the years she served on the committee. We will never forget. Thank you for sharing your wife with this committee. “
“I know she smiles down at us with this award,” said Nunn. “It’s probably one of her favorite awards she received.”
Nunn shared how to honor the legacy of Parks and Hilliard-Nunn.
“If you don’t know history, you are doomed to repeat it,” said Nunn. “It is time for a new civil rights movement. It is clear that they are not listening to us and the big donors. We have to be out there and let people know. The best way to honor Patricia’s legacy is to begin this fight and fight. “
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