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“AUTHORIZING THE AWARD OF A CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL TO ROSA PARKS” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the Senate section on pages S3837-S3845 on April 19, 1999.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
AUTHORIZING THE AWARD OF A CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL TO ROSA PARKS
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the clerk will report S. 531.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 531) to authorize the President to award a gold medal on behalf of the Congress to Rosa Parks in recognition of her contributions to the Nation.
The Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.
Mr. ABRAHAM. Madam President, I wish to express my appreciation to Senator Lott for bringing forward this unanimous consent agreement to discharge an important piece of legislation from the Banking Committee.
I also thank the original cosponsors of this bill, Senators Sessions, Levin, Kennedy and Harkin for their support, along with 74 other colleagues who have cosponsored this bill.
Our intent is to honor one of the most important figures in the American civil rights movement, Rosa Parks. This legislation would honor Mrs. Parks with a Congressional gold medal in recognition of her immense contributions to our nation over a lifetime committed to furthering civil rights in our nation.
Rosa Louise McCauley was born in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1913. At age 2 she moved to her grandparents' farm in Pine Level, Alabama with her mother, Leona McCauley, and younger brother, Sylvester. Her mother, a school teacher, taught her at home until, at age 11, she enrolled in the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls.
The young Miss McCauley cleaned classrooms to pay her tuition, then moved on to attend Booker T. Washington High School. She was forced to leave that school to take care of her sick mother.
In 1932 she married Raymond Parks. Mr. Parks, who was largely self-
taught, supported his wife, Rosa's, desire to finish high school and to attend Alabama State College, which she did.
The couple settled in Montgomery, Alabama, where they were active in the local chapter of the NAACP and the Montgomery Voters League.
Mrs. Parks worked to register African American voters and to fight the violence and injustice visited upon them under segregation.
As Mrs. Parks put it, ``There were cases of flogging, peonage, murder, and rape.'' During this time the NAACP ``didn't seem to have too many successes. It was more a matter of trying to challenge the powers that be, and to let it be known that we did not wish to continue being second-class citizens.''
Rosa Parks issued that challenge to the powers that be. And her brave act helped bring down the system of segregation in this country.
The story has been told many times of how Mrs. Parks, employed as a seamstress in a local department store, boarded a Montgomery city bus on December 1, 1955. After a few stops, a number of white people got on the bus--too many to fit into the seats in the ``whites only'' section. Seeing a white man standing on his bus, the driver ordered Mrs. Parks and three other African Americans to give up their seats to him.
The other three people moved, but Rosa Parks had had enough. As she reflected later, ``I kept thinking about my mother and my grandparents, and how strong they were. I knew there was a possibility of being mistreated, but an opportunity was being given to me to do what I had asked of others.''
Mrs. Parks showed her strength by refusing to give up her seat. She was arrested, she was taken to jail and four days later she was convicted of disorderly conduct. Her crime? Refusing to be treated as a second class citizen.
Even before this unjust conviction was handed down, indeed, the very day after Mrs. Parks' arrest, the response, born of righteous indignation, had begun. Mrs. Parks had set in motion events that would change the face of the United States forever.
On December 2, the Women's Political Council distributed fliers throughout the community encouraging African Americans to boycott the Montgomery bus system on the day of Mrs. Parks' trial.
A meeting was held at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, whose pastor was the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, jr. This meeting, held to plan the boycott, included the reverend Ralph Abernathy, Reverend King and Jo Ann Robinson of the Women's Political Council.
The boycott was an astounding success, and on the day of Mrs. Parks' trial the Montgomery Improvement Association was formed with Dr. King as spokesman and president.
The Montgomery Improvement Association took over management of the bus boycott, which was to last 381 days, and filed suit on behalf of those against whom the bus company had discriminated.
In the face of widespread harassment, threats and even bombs, the brave people of the Montgomery Improvement Association, along with their supporters, kept up their boycott while their case made its way through the courts.
Finally, on November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court held Montgomery's bus segregation unconstitutional. After a brief period of defiance the segregationists gave in, and the boycott ended.
Of course this was far from the end of the battle for civil rights in America. But it was an important event, spurring the civil rights movement to further action.
Through marches, boycotts, civil disobedience and the power of their principles, members of the civil rights movement broke down the barriers of legal discrimination and established equality before the law as a reality for all Americans.
Rosa Parks set these historic events in motion. Because of her faith, perseverance and quiet dignity, all Americans have been freed from the moral stain of segregation.
But Rosa Parks paid a price for her principles. She was arrested. She lost her job. She could not find work. And she was constantly harassed.
Fortunately for my state of Michigan, Mrs. Parks' bother, Sylvester, had resettled in Detroit, and the Parks family joined him there in 1957.
For over 40 years now, Michigan has been a particular beneficiary of Mrs. Parks' work on behalf of civil rights and her efforts to educate young people in particular.
And this mother of the civil rights movement, as she is known throughout our nation, continues to be active in the struggle for equality and the empowerment of the disenfranchised.
In 1965 she joined the staff of U.S. Representative John Conyers, where she worked until her retirement in 1988.
After the death of her husband in 1987 she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development.
This non-profit organization helps young people achieve their full potential. Over 5,000 young people have participated in the Institute's
``Pathways to Freedom'' tour, which traces parts of the Underground Railroad along which escaped slaves traveled to safety. The Institute also runs local programs offering summer school, tutoring programs and life-skills classes.
Ms. Parks has received many awards in recognition of her efforts for racial harmony, including the Springarn Award, the NAACP's highest honor for civil rights contributions, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest civilian honor, and the first International Freedom Conductor Award from the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.
Throughout her long life, Rosa Parks has shown that one woman can make a real difference. She has shown all of us the power of conviction and quiet dignity in pursuit of justice and empowerment. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting legislation to bestow upon her the Congressional gold medal she so well deserves.
Madam President, I was thinking about Rosa Parks as I came to the floor today. I remembered an incident that I briefly mentioned when we introduced this legislation, an incident of my own. It was the first I had heard of Rosa Parks, although her name wasn't specifically mentioned, or at least it did not register at the time. As an elementary schoolchild, probably around, I would guess, in 1962, 1963--
somewhere in the second, third, fourth grade--I remember the teacher in my classroom talking about this incident, this woman who would not move to the back of the bus, explaining it to us as one explains things to children who do not necessarily know history as well as they should at that age, explaining what it meant and why it had been so important.
I was thinking about that today because I recognized at that moment I, as a second-grade student, first realized that everybody in the country was not always treated the same way. That is how that incident, Rosa Parks' contribution, touched my life. Later, obviously, as I moved along in school, I read more and watched the news a little and began to realize the magnitude of the civil rights struggle we as a nation had addressed, and so much of it was based on this event which Rosa Parks prompted in 1955.
So, while all of us, I suppose, can see this in its national consequence, I am sure all of us, too, probably, have a more personal connection as well. That is mine. It is also, first, a connection that I share with my colleague from Michigan, who is about to speak on this as well. That is the connection of pride that we have that Rosa Parks is a Michiganian.
While she may have been born and lived much of her life in another part of the country, we are awfully proud of the fact that most of the last 40 years she has lived in our State.
Madam President, if you look at the list of those who have been recipients of congressional gold medals, most recently President and Mrs. Gerald Ford and such other honorees as Mother Teresa and the Little Rock Nine, Billy and Ruth Graham, it seems only fitting that Congress should now pass this legislation and add Rosa Parks to this list of Americans who have made such great contributions.
Privilege of the Floor
Before I yield the floor, I ask unanimous consent that Meg Mehan, who is on my staff, be granted the privilege of the floor during consideration of this legislation.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. ABRAHAM. Thank you, Madam President. I yield the floor for the Senator from Michigan.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan is recognized.
Mr. LEVIN. Madam President, I thank my colleague from Michigan.
Today, we will authorize the President of the United States to award the congressional gold medal to one of our Nation's greatest heroines, Rosa Parks. Rosa Parks is the mother of the civil rights movement, and we are going to make this medal available and we are going to award this to her because of her extraordinary contributions to America.
Forty-three years ago, in December of 1955, an unassuming woman by the name of Rosa Parks decided she would not give up her seat in the front of the bus and move to the back of the bus. It was not scheduled as a media event. It was not intended to be something which would spark a revolution. It, indeed, did spark an American revolution. It unleashed forces in this country, which are positive forces, which have added equal opportunity or fairer opportunity for African Americans and others who have been discriminated against for too many decades and centuries.
It was the act of an American citizen who just made a simple, straightforward decision that she is entitled equally to sit on a bus with any other person. She is not going to take an inferior position to anybody. She seeks no advantage over anyone else, but she will not accept an inferior status any longer on a public bus in Alabama.
The forces that set in motion have changed this Nation. It has changed this Nation for the better. It has forced us to confront centuries of discrimination against African Americans brought here as slaves and, even after slavery was abolished, too often treated as inferiors in a country that prides itself on treating all of its citizens equally and whose Constitution and Declaration of Independence held out a promise which had been thwarted and which was unfulfilled for our African American citizens.
Her arrest for violating the city's segregation laws was the catalyst for the Montgomery bus boycott. Her stand on that December day in 1955 was not an isolated incident but was actually part of a lifetime of struggle for equality and justice. Twelve years earlier, in 1943, Rosa Parks had been arrested for violating another one of the city's bus-
related segregation laws. That earlier law had required African Americans to pay their fares at the front of the bus, then get off the bus and then get on the bus at the back to reboard the bus. As it happened, the driver of the bus in 1955 was the same driver who was driving the bus in 1943. The rest is history.
The boycott which Rosa Parks began was the beginning of an American revolution that elevated the status of African Americans and introduced to the world a young leader who would one day have a national holiday declared in his honor, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. The Congressional Medal of Honor is a fitting tribute to Rosa Parks, a gentle warrior who decided that she would no longer tolerate the humiliation and the demoralization of racial segregation.
Rosa Parks, as my friend from Michigan said, is a resident of Michigan, and we are very proud of it. We hope that is acknowledged in the final bill which comes out of the Congress. We are trying to add that fact to the final bill because, as it happens, since 1957, Rosa Parks has been a Michiganian. She and her husband made the journey to Michigan in 1957 because of threats on their lives and persistent harassment by phone. That is what prompted her move to Detroit where Rosa Parks' brother resided.
She continues to dedicate her life to advancing equal opportunity and to educating our youth about the past struggles for freedom, from slavery up to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
In 1987, Rosa Parks and Elaine Eason Steele cofounded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. Its primary focus has been working with young people in Michigan and from across the country and the world as part of the ``Pathways to Freedom'' program. The pathways program traces history from the days of the underground railroad to the civil rights movement of the sixties and beyond. Through this institute, young people, ages 11 to 17, meet with national leaders and participate in a variety of educational and research projects. During the summer months in particular, many have the opportunity to travel across the country visiting historical sites.
In recent years, the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-
Development has expanded to include an intergenerational mentoring and computer skills partnership program. This innovative program teams young people with elderly Americans. Generational and age barriers break down as young people help the elderly develop computer skills, while the elderly provide their unique and personalized recollections of their lives in American history. Each year, the institute matches hundreds of young people with elderly Americans. Since 1987, more than 7,000 youth from around the world have participated in this program.
With the work of her institute, we can truly say that in addition to having played a major role in shaping America's past and present, Rosa Parks is playing a major role in shaping America's future. With the dawn of a new millennium at hand, America must ensure that all of our youth are knowledgeable of one of the great national stories of our time and the struggle of African American individuals that finally forced us to honor the principles which founded this country and which had so long been rejected in the real world and in reality, even though they were promised on paper.
The Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development ``Pathway to Freedom'' programs preserve the memories of self-sacrifice that African Americans, and so many others, have made to this country's development as truly the land of the free.
Madam President, this is great work which Rosa Parks continues to do. She continues to bless us, our Nation, our State with her presence, with her dignity, with her very direct, simple statement about equality. We hopefully will not just award her a medal one of these days, but we will also hopefully support the important work which she continues to do in her institute.
We have come a long way in achieving Dr. King's dream and Rosa Parks' dream of justice and equality for all, but we still have a long ways to go. That is going to take a constant rededication to these goals and to the lifetime work of Rosa Parks and to the spirit of human rights which she so embodies and for which the name ``Rosa Parks'' stands.
I am proud to join Senator Abraham and others, so many others, in this body and in the other body who have initiated this gold medal for her. We look forward to the day when we are actually able to present to one of the true champions of justice a gold medal which she so truly deserves.
I yield the floor and again thank my friend from Michigan.
Mr. ABRAHAM. Madam President, I know there are other Members who have expressed an interest to speak on this issue, some of whom will be arriving back in Washington, if they have not already gotten here, on flights this afternoon. So we will, I know, be here for some time waiting to give them the opportunity to speak before our vote on this. But at this time, seeing none of them on the floor, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. ABRAHAM. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. ABRAHAM. Knowing there are speakers on each side who hope to have a chance to speak, so we do not run the clock completely off during quorum calls, I suggest the absence of a quorum and ask unanimous consent that the time of the quorum call be equally divided between both sides.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. ABRAHAM. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. ABRAHAM. Madam President, I yield such time as he needs to the Senator from Alabama.
Mr. SESSIONS addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Hutchison). The Senator from Alabama is recognized.
Mr. SESSIONS. Today is a special day for me. I remember a number of weeks ago when Senator Abraham and I discussed the possibility of awarding a congressional gold medal to Rosa Parks. It was an idea that we thought was a good one. I am glad to see it moving rapidly to fruition.
I certainly believe the congressional gold medal is a very distinguished award that ought to be preserved for the most exceptional circumstances and persons. And I certainly believe that the person we will honor today has all the qualities for receiving the congressional gold medal.
So I am pleased to honor a native Alabamian who, through her life and through her example, has touched both the heart and conscience of an entire Nation. I speak, of course, of Ms. Rosa Parks, a native of Tuskegee, AL, and a former resident of Montgomery, whose dignity in the face of discrimination helped spark a movement to ensure that all citizens were treated equally under the law.
Equal treatment under the law is a fundamental pillar upon which our Republic rests. In fact, over the first 2 months of this year this Senate was engaged in a constitutional debate over the scope and meaning of this very concept.
As legislators, we should work to strengthen the appreciation for this important fundamental governing principle by recognizing those who make extraordinary contributions towards ensuring that all American citizens have that opportunity, regardless of their race, sex, creed, or national origin, to enjoy the freedoms this country has to offer.
Through her efforts, Ms. Parks has come to be a living embodiment of this principle, and it is entirely appropriate that Congress take this opportunity to acknowledge her contribution by authorizing the award of a congressional gold medal to her. Her courage, what we may call
``gumption,'' resulted in historic change. Certainly there is still much to be done. True equality--the total elimination of discrimination and a real sense of ease and acceptance among the races--has not yet been fully achieved, but it is fair to say that in the history of this effort, the most dramatic and productive chapter was ignited by the lady we seek to honor today.
Ms. Parks' story is well known but it bears repeating. She was born on February 4, 1913, in the small town of Tuskegee, AL, to Mr. James and Mrs. Leona McCauley. As a young child, she moved to Montgomery with her mother who was a local schoolteacher. Like many southern cities, the Montgomery of Ms. Parks' youth was a segregated city with numerous laws mandating the separate and unequal treatment of people based solely upon the color of their skin. These laws were discriminatory in their intent and divisive, unfair, and humiliating in application. But for years Ms. Parks had suffered with them, until that fateful day of December 1, 1955, when her pride and dignity would not allow her to obey them anymore.
On this day, Ms. Parks, a 42-year-old seamstress, boarded a city bus after a long, hard day at work. Like other public accommodations, this bus contained separate sections for white passengers and black passengers. White passengers were allocated to the front rows. The black passengers were given the back rows. This bus was particularly crowded that evening.
At one of the stops, a white passenger boarded and the bus driver, seeing Ms. Parks, requested that she give up her seat and move to the back of the bus, even though this meant that she would be forced to stand for the rest of the trip. Ms. Parks refused to give up her seat and was arrested for disobeying the bus driver's order.
With her act of civic defiance, Ms. Parks set off a chain of events that have led some to refer to her as the mother of the civil rights movement. Her arrest led to the Montgomery bus boycott, an organized movement led by a young minister named Martin Luther King, Jr., who had begun preaching at the historic Baptist church located on Montgomery's Dexter Avenue. The bus boycott lasted 382 days, and its impact directly led to the integration of bus lines, while the attention generated helped lift Dr. King to national prominence. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to rule on the constitutionality of the Montgomery law which Ms. Parks had defied, and the Supreme Court struck it down.
This powerful image, that of a hard-working American ordered to the back of the bus just because of her race, was a catalytic event. It was the spark that caused a nation to stop accepting things as they had been and focused everyone on the fundamental issue--whether we could continue as a segregated society.
As a result of the movement Ms. Parks helped start, today's Montgomery is a quite different city from the one of her youth. Today the citizens of Montgomery look with a great deal of historical pride upon the church that once heard the sermons of Dr. King. Montgomery is the home of the Civil Rights Memorial, a striking monument of black granite and cascading water which memorializes the individuals who gave their lives in pursuit of equal justice.
Today's Montgomery is a city in which its history as the capital of the Confederacy and its history as the birthplace of the civil rights movement are both recognized and reconciled. And soon Troy State University of Montgomery will become the home of the Rosa Parks Library and Museum, built on the very spot upon which Ms. Parks was arrested in 1955, the old Empire Theater. I will briefly describe this important project.
Troy State University, Montgomery, is an important university of over 3,400 full-time students. They are in the midst of constructing a 50,000-square-foot library and museum on the land they own which includes the exact location where Ms. Parks was arrested in 1955. When completed, this museum will include a 3,700-square-foot permanent exhibit focusing on the commemoration of the Montgomery civil rights movement. This project memorializes an historic event that changed the city of Montgomery for the better, and I look forward to offering any support I can to aid in its completion.
Ms. Parks' efforts helped spark the dynamic social changes which have made it possible for this kind of recognition to be supported by Montgomerians and Alabamians. But, in fact, Ms. Parks' contributions may extend beyond even the borders of our Nation. In his book ``Bus Ride to Justice,'' Mr. Fred Gray, who gained fame while in his twenties as Ms. Parks' attorney in the bus desegregation case and one of the early African American attorneys in Alabama--he was a lead attorney in many of Alabama's other famous civil rights cases--wrote--and I do not believe it is an exaggeration--these words:
Little did we know that we had set in motion a force that would ripple through Alabama, the South, and the Nation, and even the world. But from the vantage point of almost 40 years later, there is a direct correlation between what we started in Montgomery and what has subsequently happened in China, eastern Europe, South Africa and, even more recently, in Russia. While it is inaccurate to say that we all sat down and deliberately planned a movement that would echo and reverberate around the world, we did work around the clock, planning strategy and creating an atmosphere that gave strength, courage, faith and hope to people of all races, creeds, colors and religions around the world. And it all started on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, with Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955.
For her courage, for her role in changing Alabama, the South, the Nation, and the world for the better, our Nation owes a great debt of thanks to Rosa Parks. I hope that this body will extend its thanks and recognition to her by awarding her the congressional gold medal.
Madam President, I thank you for this time and for being able to share these remarks. I also thank Senator Abraham for his skill and work in helping us move this award forward. I think it is a fitting and appropriate thing to do. I have enjoyed working with him on quite a number of other issues. No one in the Senate is more respected by me than the Senator from Michigan.
I yield the floor.
Mr. ABRAHAM. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Alabama for his work on this legislation as well as many other things which he does here. But particularly for how hard he worked on this, as has his staff, to help us move this forward, I express my appreciation to him as well.
I ask unanimous consent that Senator Gregg of New Hampshire be added as a cosponsor to this legislation.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. ABRAHAM. Madam President, on our side I am not aware specifically of any other Member who wishes to speak. I do know that the Senator from California is here and there may be others coming. We do have some time left. We will temporarily reserve the remainder of our time, but if others who wish to speak from either side of the aisle are here, we will be glad to offer that. At this point, I will reserve the remainder of my time. The Senator from Alabama may stay for a minute. I am not sure. If necessary, I will come back down. I want to make clear to the Presiding Officer that anyone who wishes to speak may draw from that time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. So noted.
Mr. BYRD. Madam President, I am proud to join my colleagues from Michigan, Senators Abraham and Levin, in sponsoring S. 531, legislation authorizing the presentation of a Congressional Gold Medal to Mrs. Rosa Parks.
As we approach the 21st century, it is only fitting that the Senate take this moment to recognize the efforts of Rosa Parks, who, on December 1, 1955, proved that one person can make a difference in the world in which we live. By refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, an act which put her in violation of the segregation laws then in place in her community, Mrs. Parks sparked a series of events that have helped to shape this nation's path.
For refusing to acquiesce to the systematic degradation placed upon her and other black-Americans, Rosa Parks was arrested. But rather than accept the status quo, this quiet lady from Montgomery, Alabama, chose to challenge the segregation order by seeking redress in our federal courts. During the court battle, Mrs. Parks was harassed, threatened, and even lost her job as a seamstress at a local department store. In the end, though, Rosa Parks won her battle when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregation unconstitutional, thus vindicating her simple, but monumental, pursuit of justice and equality.
Madam President, the actions of Rosa Parks were not staged for the television cameras. They were not part of a grand scheme to create a test case. On the contrary, they were the actions of a single individual determined to preserve her dignity as best she could. They were the actions of a simple lady who, at that moment in her life, decided that enough was enough.
It is fitting, then, that the Senate should award the Congressional Gold Medal to Rosa Parks, the highest award that the Congress can bestow on a private citizen, in recognition of her courage and her lifelong commitment to the Jeffersonian ideal that ``all men are created equal.''
Mr. HATCH. Madam President, this legislation conveys our Nation's respect to one of its foremost civil rights pioneers.
The Congressional Gold Medal is no common accolade, but Rosa Parks is no common woman. Her achievements are indeed most uncommon; they are nothing short of extraordinary.
None of us of sufficient age to remember the year 1955 will ever forget Ms. Parks' courage in refusing to give up her seat to a white man who wanted it.
What makes Ms. Parks' courage so uncommon was its manner: the type of action we usually associate with greatness in the civil rights movement might involve a speech, a march, a coalition . . . . Ms. Parks' courage was quiet, determined and resolute, but it had the volume of a great speech, the force of a mass march, and the power to coalesce that would lead to historic Supreme Court decisions abrogating segregation, and passage of the seminal Civil Rights Act of 1964.
It has been said of our extraordinary figures that their heroic actions, as the years pass, begin to appear more accepted and less controversial. This is because, as leaders, great men and women have little company, but as their revolutionary ideas gather strength, they also gather adherents. This medal will help remind us, and generations to come, that at the time Ms. Parks refused to move from her seat on the bus, her act of defiance was anything but common.
Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, Rosa Parks is an enduring symbol of freedom, dignity, and courage for our time and for all time, and she eminently deserves this Congressional Gold Medal.
Her momentous decision to quietly and peacefully defy her community's segregation laws nearly half a century ago was a defining moment for the entire civil rights movement in the United States and in many other lands as well. On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Mrs. Parks was a 42 year old seamstress returning home on a city bus after a long and tiring day at work. She refused to give up her seat and move to the back of the bus as the law required, and America would never be the same again.
Because of her quiet, simple, eloquent act of courage, she was arrested and fined. As news of her arrest spread, thousands of African Americans in the city quickly rallied to her cause, and four days later, on December 5, 1955, the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott was launched.
It took a year, but the Supreme Court declared the Montgomery segregation law unconstitutional. On December 21, 1956, thanks to her unyielding demand for equal justice, Rosa Parks and the African Americans of Montgomery were free to ride on the city buses as full and equal citizens.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott touched the conscience of the nation, and focused the attention of citizens across America on the evils of segregation, discrimination, and the notorious Jim Crow laws. The power and justice of the civil rights movement could not be denied. In the decade that followed, Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1964, and America took giant steps toward fulfilling the promise of equal justice under law and full constitutional rights for all Americans.
For her historic act of peaceful civil disobedience, Rosa Parks is often called the ``Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.'' She changed the course of America history, and made us a stronger, better, and freer nation. All Americans owe her a deep debt of gratitude for bringing us closer to our ideals, and I am proud to support this bill to award her the Congressional Gold Medal.
Mr. KERRY. Madam President, I am pleased to speak today as a co-
sponsor of legislation to award a gold medal to Rosa Parks in recognition of her historic contributions to the civil rights movement and to our country.
The word hero is one of the most overused words in our national vernacular, a term that should be reserved for those rare people whose incredible acts of courage in the face of tremendous adversity and long odds inspire us all. Surely it can be said, though, that one of the true living heroes in our country is the mother of the civil rights movement, Rosa Parks.
No one would deny that America is a better place today because, on December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks sat down on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama and insisted that she would not be moved. To those of us who were children in these years watching the news on black and white television sets, entranced by the grainy images and the reassuring voice of Walter Cronkite, it is difficult to express the singular act of courage expressed in Rosa Parks' determination--her absolute resolve--to make a stand in a part of our nation we knew was home to Bull Connor and his snarling police dogs, George Wallace and his promise of ``segregation today, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever,'' and men like Orval Faubus who pledged to stand in schoolhouse doors from Little Rock to Selma to prevent us all from living as one America, undivided by race.
In one incredible moment, Rosa Parks set forth a wave of activism all across America and captured the essence of the better half of the American spirit--proud, courageous, defiant against injustice--and Americans followed her lead. 42,000 African Americans boycotted Montgomery's buses for 381 days until the bus segregation laws in Alabama were changed on December 21, 1956.
The changes that Rosa Parks made possible in America transcended the realm, even, of our public laws--they literally changed a way of life. Because Rosa Parks stood firm against injustice, she not only joined with Martin Luther King, Jr. in ending the era of Jim Crowe, she helped usher in an age in America when Thurgood Marshall could serve on the highest court of the land; an America where John Lewis and so many others who marched for freedom could serve in the United States Congress; and an America in which we could all, living, working, and hoping together, envision a future--still ahead--when a still-better, still-stronger America heals itself of all the scars of racism and bigotry.
Future generations of Americans need to know that this country considers Rosa Parks a hero. It should be known that we recognized Ms. Parks' contributions to our country--and that we hoped that for years to come--in our homes, our schools, in our cities and on our village greens--we wanted all Americans to learn and to remember what Rosa Parks struggled to make true for our nation.
As we all join together as a Senate united in our deep respect for Rosa Parks, let us remember also that we can do more for this leader than give her a gold medal--we can make her work our own--in the House, in the Senate, and in our lives every day. We can all summon--at the edge of the twenty-first century--the best of our own spirit to wipe away the hatred, the bigotry, and the intolerance that remains in America--and we can dedicate ourselves to building a better America in Rosa Parks' image. That effort, too, will be a part of Rosa Parks' legacy in the United States, and that monument will endure long after any medal has lost its shine.
Madam President, I urge the United States Senate to contemplate that challenge on this special day in the United States of America, as we honor Rosa Parks--but also as we ask ourselves how we can fulfill her promise and finally create Rosa Parks' America.
Mr. HARKIN. Madam President, the Congressional Gold Medal is among the most distinguished honors that Congress can bestow on individuals in recognition of their work or accomplishments. Since 1776, this award, initially reserved for military leaders, has also been given to such diverse individuals as Sir Winston Churchill, Charles Lindbergh and Mother Teresa.
Rosa Parks is not a military hero, not a head of state, explorer or adventurer.
On December 1, 1955, she was a seamstress on her way to work, who took a seat on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. For that simple action of sitting on a bus, she was arrested, sent to jail, and convicted of what city laws called a crime and lost her job.
Rosa Parks is a living example of how an extraordinary person, engaged in the ordinary matters of life, can change the world.
The day that Ms. Parks refused to surrender her seat to a white man symbolizes the beginning of the modern civil rights movement. Her arrest for violating the city's segregation laws was the catalyst for a mass boycott of the city's buses, whose rider ship had been 70 percent black. The boycott led to the national prominence of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and to a Supreme Court order declaring Montgomery County's segregated seating laws unconstitutional.
Ms. Parks, known now as the ``first lady of civil rights,'' later said, ``I felt just resigned to give what I could to protest against the way I was being treated.''
Rosa Parks had been involved in the civil rights movement years before the bus incident and her efforts continued long afterward. She was one of the first female members of the Montgomery Chapter of the NAACP, she joined the Montgomery Voters League and encouraged blacks to register to vote.
Despite her civil rights work, Rosa Parks on that historic day actually followed the degrading rules that reserved the first ten seats were reserved for ``whites only.'' If those rows filled up, blacks were supposed to move even further back. Parks, who was sitting just beyond the 10th row, refused to move and the arrest, the conviction and the winning appeal followed. All she had asked for was the basic respect and simple dignity of not being forced to give up her seat to a white man.
Rosa Parks actions and her determination to preserve her dignity spread throughout the nation and sparked the end of segregation in the South. She hasn't stopped since.
In 1957, she moved to Detroit where she worked for nonviolent social change with Martin Luther King Jr's Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She worked for Congressman John Conyers and in 1987 she founded an institute to provide leadership and career training to black youth. Forty-four years after that historic day in Montgomery, she continues to speak out on civil rights issues.
We have heard the ``first lady of civil rights'' story over and over again throughout the years and it will own a permanent place in our history books. But we need to keep listening and reminding ourselves of the extraordinary courage and determination that this working woman had to win the most basic rights that everyone in our nation deserves. She serves as a model and inspiration for what each of us can do in our everyday lives toward greater respect, dignity and kindness among humankind.
I urge my colleagues to join me in bestowing the Congressional Gold Medal to ``the mother of the freedom movement.''
Mr. ROBB. Madam President, last week I offered a few comments on two great civil rights leaders, Ms. Rosa Parks and Mr. Oliver W. Hill.
Today, as we are on the verge of passing S. 531, legislation to award a Congressional Gold Medal to Ms. Rosa Parks, I want to speak again just briefly.
As I noted last week, our Nation owes Ms. Parks an immense debt of gratitude. It is gratifying to me that we have been able to move this legislation so quickly, and I think the great speed with which the Senate is acting is testimony in itself to our admiration of Ms. Parks.
No matter how eloquent our words or how eloquent we believe them to be, words can never match the simple act of this courageous woman. Ms. Parks herself has become a symbol for the courage and righteousness of the civil rights movement. When we think of her action, we cannot help but think of the consequences --an historic bus boycott by 40,000 people, a decade of principled protests, and legal and legislative victories that helped make America more free.
Ms. Parks, an unassuming seamstress who stood up to segregation by sitting down in the front seat of a city bus in Montgomery, AL, now stands like a giant in the history of the 20th century.
I thank our colleagues and the leadership for their support for passing S. 531 today. While we still face too long a journey to end discrimination, Rosa Parks and thousands of individual acts of courage have made us more free and have inspired the rest of us to carry on in our own efforts.
With that, I yield the floor.
Mr. BAYH. Madam President, I rise today to express my support for awarding Mrs. Rosa Parks a Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of her contributions to the nation.
On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks got on a bus--a quiet, proud woman, bound unfairly by the laws of our country and the limits of her surroundings. But by the time the police took her off that bus, she was bound only by the strength of her will, a will that refused to be moved.
Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the bus.
Somewhere, in the brief moment that separates a spoken objection from an act of protest, Rosa Parks emerged as the ``first lady of civil rights,'' and the ``mother of the freedom movement.'' We look at this woman's accomplishment and we salute her for the civil rights movement she helped set in motion. We look back now, and we applaud the monumental force which is still a vital part of our society today.
Back in the 1950's, in a small city, on an ordinary bus, she had neither titles nor honorifics. She was just Rosa Parks--and ``just'' Rosa Parks refused to let others limit what she was supposed to do. Her act was defined, not by its violence, but rather by its non-violent challenge towards a violent system.
Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the bus.
If our country's history has taught us anything, it is that small decisions of action can change our world. If Rosa Parks has taught us anything, it is that the courageous action of one individual can be more powerful than the shouted declaration of a crowd.
Thus, I am honored today to join with my colleagues in honoring this great American whose courage, dignity, and character have continued to serve as an inspiration for the quiet but heroic actions that shape our world.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California is recognized.
Mrs. BOXER. Thank you, Madam President.
Madam President, how much time remains on the Democratic side?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Eighteen minutes.
Mrs. BOXER. Thank you very much.
Madam President, I ask for as much time as I might consume--not expecting to consume more than about 5 or 10 minutes.
Madam President, this is a good day for the Senate. I am very proud to be a cosponsor of S. 531, and I want to thank my colleagues, Senators Abraham, Levin, Sessions, Kennedy and Harkin, for working on this important and historic legislation and making sure that it was brought to the floor of the Senate.
Today I expect that we will move forward unanimously--this is my expectation--in the effort to award Rosa Parks a Congressional Gold Medal which will celebrate her leadership to ensure that all of us are treated equally in this country, the greatest of all countries in the world, the United States of America.
I urge the House to move forward with their bill. I understand they have many, many cosponsors, so we ought to take care of this soon.
The last time I saw Rosa Parks, she was getting on in years, just as we all do. It would be important to allow her this one more reward for her bravery, for her courage, and recognize that she is an inspiration to every single one of us regardless of our race or religion, regardless of what we look like, regardless of whether we have a disability or not. We all find ourselves in the situation where we are not treated equally. And for ensuring that African Americans will be treated equally, Rosa Parks took a giant step forward for all of us.
I shudder to think of where our country would be were it not for the pioneers in the civil rights movement. We have seen in the world and we see every day what happens when people turn on people for no reason other than the status of their birth. It makes no sense. It goes against God. But it happens.
For us to take time out particularly now to honor Rosa Parks is very, very fitting. Where would we have been as a society if Mrs. Parks had agreed when the bus driver turned around, and said, ``You get up and give your seat'' to a white person on December 1, 1955? We don't have to speculate, because Rosa Parks had the courage to say no.
At the time she was 42 years old. She was coming back from work. She was tired. She worked hard, and she thought to herself--I am sure because I am sure she had thought it many times--``Am I worth so little as a human being that I can't have the dignity to have a seat on a bus?''
Senator Abraham was talking about the first time he heard about Rosa Parks. We all have our experiences when we are in the presence of greatness and how it feels. It is very humbling to meet someone like that. She could have been beaten, injured, or killed for a very simple premise that she had an equal right to sit on a bus.
When I was a little girl--and I will not give away how old I was--I was in a southern State where my mother was recuperating from an illness. I was very unaware of any of these laws that said black people have to go on the back of the bus. I didn't know anything about it. I was young. I was having fun. I found myself in a situation with my mother in a bus. And I was sitting down kind of towards the front, about the middle of the bus. An elderly woman came in who happened to be African American. She was carrying a lot of packages. She was frail. I did what I was always taught to do. I stood up. I said, ``Here, ma'am. Please sit down.'' My mother was sitting next to me on the bus. She let me do this. She knew. And this woman said, ``No, thank you.'' I didn't understand.
I said, ``No. Really. Please sit down. I want you to sit down.'' She said, ``No. No, thank you.'' And she proceeded down. And my mother told me. She leaned over, and she said, ``She can't sit there.'' I said,
``Why?'' ``Because she is minority, she can't sit there.''
I didn't know quite what to do. I mean I was not quite a teen. But I knew this was absolutely wrong because of everything that I was taught as a child in my loving family.
I just said to my mother, ``Well, I am not going to sit down. I will just stand up.'' I went toward the back and held on and stood up, and for whatever it was worth--nothing, probably, but to me at least what I did was not totally helpless. It occurred to me as a youngster, this makes no sense at all.
The thought that it took Rosa Parks to turn it around is amazing to me. It shows you how institutions of discrimination are so inculcated in society that it takes that kind of bravery to turn it around.
What is the message of all of this when we give Rosa Parks this medal? It is, of course, to remember these times, because if we don't remember the past, we are bound to repeat it. Everybody said that it is true. But it is also a message to our young people, and to all of us who live pretty good lives--that we should have a little bit of courage in our lives, that when we see something wrong, if we hear something that is offensive, that is hurtful, it is real easy to turn the other way. And we hear it all the time. We always say, ``Well, I don't want to really not be liked by everyone. I don't want to say anything. They will think I am `politically correct'.'' I hate that term, because I don't get that term. It is either right or it is wrong. It is not
``politically'' anything. It is right or it is wrong. If it is wrong, we need to do something. We may not have the courage of Rosa Parks. Not all of us are born with that. But there are things that we can do.
Mrs. Parks' quiet strength and defiance helped commence one of the most profound social movements in American history. Imagine just saying, ``No. I will not give up. I have a right to be treated equally.'' She helped precipitate the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It took a long time. But we came around.
That is why this country is so great, because we do the right thing.
There she was, a woman of 42 years old, well respected, and had a lot to lose by acting out in this way. But she did it.
She also refused to take ``Black Only'' escalators, and often avoided riding the bus home from work because of the constant harassment and the segregated seating arrangement.
Finally, she acted. Her arrest was a call to action for the African American residents in Montgomery, AL, who were determined to fight segregation and win.
That boycott lasted 382 days, and it involved 42,000 boycotters. It cost the bus company a lot of profit.
Then, in 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Montgomery segregation law was illegal and ordered the desegregation of buses.
That was the first of many victories for those in the civil rights movement.
When you see Mrs. Parks, you will see a fragile person. You look in her eyes, and you try to imagine what it was like for her to do what she did. But you see a strength in those eyes. She kept the community glued together for the common goal of equality, and she changed this Nation for the better forever.
This is what she said when someone asked her how she would like to be known. She said, ``I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.''
Her actions made sure that this Nation does offer freedom, equality, justice, and prosperity to all people if they work hard for it.
Our courts ensure that people are free from discrimination. When we see it here, we cry out about it with one voice, whether it is against people for the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, their disability, or their religion. It is all part of what it means to be an American, it seems to me, to fight for equality for all our people. That is what makes us a better country. It makes us a more prosperous nation.
In closing, I will read part of the preamble to the Constitution. The great thing about our country is we don't put our Constitution on a back shelf. We try to make it real. There are a lot of nations in the world that have good constitutions but they don't enforce them.
WE THE PEOPLE of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this CONSTITUTION. . . .
``[D]omestic Tranquility.'' It is not tranquil if we are hurting one another, if we discriminate against one another.
``[E]stablish Justice.'' We have no justice if people can't sit down on the bus or can't go to a school simply because of the color of their skin or because of a disability.
``[P]romote the general Welfare.'' You can't have a society where everyone is moving forward if we discriminate against people.
This Constitution is a magnificent document, and Rosa Parks, with her action, made that Constitution a living document. The Supreme Court looked at what was going on and they said that was wrong; it is unconstitutional to harm people, to discriminate against people, because of the status of their birth. So we continue to fight for civil rights. These fights come in many different ways. I think it is pretty simple. It is what Mrs. Parks said:
I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom, equality, justice and prosperity for all people.
Very simple. But I think we ought to look at that and give everything we do here the Rosa Parks test: Are we doing the right thing for the people of this great Nation? She deserves this congressional medal, this gold medal.
I am very proud, Madam President, to have the opportunity to be here and make a few comments. I reserve the remainder of my time, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative assistant proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I am delighted to see the Senate take up this bill--and I suspect we will pass this bill unanimously--honoring the courage and leadership of Rosa Parks. She played a significant role in moving this country toward recognition of human dignity and protection of civil rights of all our citizens.
As we move forward in unanimity to call for a medal to recognize Rosa Parks' contribution to our history, I hope all of the sponsors and supporters of this bill will also take at least a moment to consider not only the progress we made but the distance we have yet to travel.
I hope, among other things, the Senate will honor Rosa Parks and all that the civil rights movement in this country has accomplished by moving forward with the nomination of Bill Lann Lee to head the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice. Action on this matter is long overdue.
Bill Lann Lee is the first Asian American to be nominated to head the Civil Rights Division in its history, 42-year history. He is currently serving as the Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights as he has for almost 16 months. He has done an impressive job enforcing our Nation's civil rights laws.
He was originally nominated in July 1997. Despite his excellent credentials and legal record, some chose to demagogue his nomination and turn it into a symbolic vote against the President.
Six former Assistant Attorneys General for Civil Rights, from the Eisenhower through the Bush administrations, wrote to the Judiciary Committee in support of his nomination: Harold Tyler, Burke Marshall, Stephen J. Pollak, J. Stanley Pottinger, Drew Days, and John R. Dunne. But he has still not come before the Senate.
He was renominated in January 1998, but the committee went all of last session without reporting his nomination. He was renominated again for the third time last month. It is past time to do the right and honorable thing, and report this qualified nominee to the Senate.
I hope, Madam President, that the Senate will be allowed to vote on Bill Lann Lee and not just leave him bottled up in a committee where a small minority of the Senate can vote. After 29 months and three sessions of Congress, bring it before the Senate of the United States, so that all Senators--Republican and Democrat alike--can either vote for him or vote against him. Let all Senators state to the country whether this extraordinary person is going to be allowed to serve in the position for which he has been nominated or whether we will tell this outstanding Asian American that the doors of the Senate are closed to him.
That is the question. Do we open the doors to this outstanding Asian American or do we close the doors? Right now they are closed. Let's have them open.
Civil Rights is about human dignity and opportunity. Bill Lann Lee's nomination ought to have the opportunity for an up or down vote on the Senate floor. He should no longer be forced to ride in the back on the nominations bus but be given the fair vote that he deserves.
After looking at Bill Lee's record, I knew he was a man who could effectively lead the Civil Rights Division, enforce the law and resolve disputes. Prior to his tenure at the Department of Justice, he had been involved in approximately 200 cases in his 23 years of law practice, of which he settled all but six of them. This is strong evidence that Mr. Lee is a problem solver and practical in his approach to the law. No one who has taken the time thoroughly to review his record could call him an idealogue. I knew Bill Lee would be reasonable and practical in his approach to the job, and that he would be a top-notch enforcer of the nation's civil rights laws. All of this has proven true.
Over the past several months, Bill Lee has been acting head of the Civil Rights Division the way it should be run. Here in Washington, where we have a lot of show horses, Bill Lee is a work horse--a dedicated public servant who is working hard to help solve some of our nation's most difficult problems. He is solving problems every day in big and small cases, which are settled or brought to trial by his remarkable team of attorneys in the Division.
During his tenure, the Civil Rights Division has resolved several hate crimes cases, including: In Idaho, six men pleaded guilty to engaging in a series of racially motivated attacks on Mexican-American men, women and children, some as young as 9-years-old; in Arizona, three members of a skinhead group pleaded guilty to burning a cross in the front yard of an African-American woman; and in Texas, a man pleaded guilty to entering a Jewish temple and firing several gun shots while shouting anti-Semitic slurs.
The Division has also been vigorously enforcing our criminal statutes, including: indictments against three people in Arkansas charged with church burning; guilty pleas by 16 Puerto Rico correctional officers who beat 22 inmates and then tried to cover it up; cases arising from Mexican women and girls, some as young as 14, being lured to the U.S. and then being forced into prostitution; and guilty pleas from 18 defendants who forced 60 deaf Mexican nationals to sell trinkets on the streets of New York. Out of concerns about slavery continuing in the U.S., Bill Lee has created a Worker Exploitation Task Force to coordinate enforcement efforts with the Department of Labor. I commend Mr. Lee for putting the spotlight on these shameful crimes.
Other significant cases which the Civil Rights Division has handled over the past year include the following: several long-standing school desegregation cases were settled or their consent decrees were terminated, including cases in Kansas City, Kansas; San Juan County, Utah; and Indianapolis, Indiana. Japanese-Latin Americans who were deported and interned in the United States during World War II also received compensation last year. Lawsuits in Ohio and Washington, D.C. were settled to allow women better access to women's health clinics.
This record indicates that Bill Lee has been running the Division the way it should be run. Over the past year, we have seen the strong and steady work of the Division -- solid achievements and effective law enforcement. I had high expectations for Bill Lee when he was nominated and I have not been disappointed. He is doing a terrific job, and I know that he will keep up the good work.
Given his outstanding work as Acting Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, I urge the Committee and the Senate to take up his nomination and accord him the dignity of a Senate vote. I am confident that in a fair vote on his nomination Bill Lann Lee will be confirmed by the United States Senate as the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. He should no longer be relegated to second class status as an Acting Assistant Attorney General. He should be confirmed and serve out his term with the full measure of dignity accorded to all other Assistant Attorneys General in charge of Civil Rights during our history.
When Bill Lee appeared before the Committee for his confirmation hearing in 1997, he testified candidly about his views, his work and his values. He articulated to us that he understands that as the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division his client is the United States and all of its people. He told us poignantly about why he became a person who has dedicated his life to equal justice for all when he spoke of the treatment that his parents received as immigrants. Mr. Lee told us how in spite of his father's personal treatment and experiences, William Lee remained a fierce American patriot, volunteered to serve in the United States Army Air Corps in World War II and never lost his belief in America.
He inspired his son just as Bill Lee now inspires his own children and countless others across the land. They are the kind of heroes that we honor and respect as fellow Americans. Mr. Lee told us:
My father is my hero, but I confess that I found it difficult for many years to appreciate his unflinching patriotism in the face of daily indignities. In my youth, I did not understand how he could remain so deeply grateful to a country where he and my mother faced so much intolerance. But I began to appreciate that the vision he had of being an American was a vision so compelling that he could set aside the momentary ugliness. He knew that the basic American tenet of equality of opportunity is the bedrock of our society.
I know that Bill Lann Lee has remained true to all that his father taught him and I hope that the ``momentary ugliness'' of people opposing his nomination based on an ideological litmus test, and of people distorting his achievements and beliefs, and of some succumbing to narrow partisanship, will not be his reward for a career of good works. Such treatment drives good people from public service and distorts the role of the Senate.
I have often referred to the Senate as acting at its best when it serves as the conscience of the nation. In this case, I am afraid that the Senate may show no conscience. I call on the Senate's Republican leadership to end their targeting of Bill Lann Lee and to work with us to bring this nomination to the floor without obstruction so that the Senate may vote and we may confirm a fine person to lead the Civil Rights Division into the next century. Racial discrimination, and harmful discrimination in all its forms--remains one of the most vexing unsolved problems of our society. Let the Senate rise to this occasion to unite the nation.
Bill Lann Lee is highly educated and highly skilled. He could have spent his career in the comfort and affluence of any one of the nation's top law firms. Yet he chose to spend his career on the front lines, helping to open the doors of opportunity to those who struggle in our society. And now some decry his lifetime of advocacy for civil rights by arguing that a civil rights advocate should not head the Civil Rights Division. The chief enforcement officer for our civil rights should be someone who believes in our civil rights laws.
Bill Lee's skills, his experience, the compelling personal journey that he and his family have traveled, his commitment to full opportunity for all Americans--these qualities appeal to the best in us. Let us affirm the best in us. Let us confirm--or at least allow the Senate to vote on the confirmation of this good man. We need Bill Lann Lee's proven problem-solving abilities in these difficult times.
If the Senate is allowed to decide, I believe he will be confirmed and will move this country forward to a time when discrimination will subside and affirmative action is no longer needed; a time when each child-- girl or boy, black or white, rich or poor, urban or rural, regardless of national or ethnic origin and regardless of sexual orientation or disability--shall have a fair and equal opportunity to live the American dream.
Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. BUNNING. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. BUNNING. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There is a sufficient second.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the bill.
The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, and was read the third time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill having been read the third time, the question is, Shall the bill pass?
The yeas and nays have been ordered.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Utah (Mr. Bennett), the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Frist), the Senator from New Hampshire (Mr. Gregg), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Jeffords), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain), and the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Shelby) are necessarily absent.
Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Biden), the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry), the Senator from New Jersey
(Mr. Lautenberg), the Senator from Maryland (Ms. Mikulski), the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Reed), the Senator from Maryland (Mr. Sarbanes), and the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Torricelli) are necessarily absent.
I also announce that the Senator from New York (Mr. Moynihan) is absent due to surgery.
I further announce that, if present and voting, the Senator from New York (Mr. Moynihan) and the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Reed) would each vote ``aye.''
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Fitzgerald). Are there any other Senators in the Chamber who desire to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 86, nays 0, as follows:
YEAS--86
AbrahamAkakaAllardAshcroftBaucusBayhBingamanBondBoxerBreauxBrownbackBryanBunningBurnsByrdCampbellChafeeClelandCochranCollinsConradCoverdellCraigCrapoDaschleDeWineDoddDomeniciDorganDurbinEdwardsEnziFeingoldFeinsteinFitzgeraldGortonGrahamGrammGramsGrassleyHagelHarkinHatchHelmsHollingsHutchinsonHutchisonInhofeInouyeJohnsonKennedyKerreyKohlKylLandrieuLeahyLevinLiebermanLincolnLottLugarMackMcConnellMurkowskiMurrayNicklesReidRobbRobertsRockefellerRothSantorumSchumerSessionsSmith (NH)Smith (OR)SnoweSpecterStevensThomasThompsonThurmondVoinovichWarnerWellstoneWyden
NOT VOTING--14
BennettBidenFristGreggJeffordsKerryLautenbergMcCainMikulskiMoynihanReedSarbanesShelbyTorricelli
The bill (S. 531) was passed, as follows:
S. 531
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds that--
(1) Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama, the first child of James and Leona (Edwards) McCauley;
(2) Rosa Parks is honored as the ``first lady of civil rights'' and the ``mother of the freedom movement'', and her quiet dignity ignited the most significant social movement in the history of the United States;
(3) Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, and her stand for equal rights became legendary;
(4) news of Rosa Parks' arrest resulted in 42,000 African Americans boycotting Montgomery buses for 381 days, beginning on December 5, 1955, until the bus segregation laws were changed on December 21, 1956;
(5) the United States Supreme Court ruled on November 13, 1956, that the Montgomery segregation law was unconstitutional, and on December 20, 1956, Montgomery officials were ordered to desegregate buses;
(6) the civil rights movement led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which broke down the barriers of legal discrimination against African Americans and made equality before the law a reality for all Americans;
(7) Rosa Parks is the recipient of many awards and accolades for her efforts on behalf of racial harmony, including the Springarn Award, the NAACP's highest honor for civil rights contributions, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest civilian honor, and the first International Freedom Conductor Award from the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center;
(8) Rosa Parks has dedicated her life to the cause of universal human rights and truly embodies the love of humanity and freedom;
(9) Rosa Parks was the first woman to join the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, was an active volunteer for the Montgomery Voters League, and in 1987, cofounded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development;
(10) Rosa Parks, by her quiet courage, symbolizes all that is vital about nonviolent protest, as she endured threats of death and persisted as an advocate for the simple, basic lessons she taught the Nation and from which the Nation has benefited immeasurably; and
(11) Rosa Parks, who has resided in the State of Michigan since 1957, has become a living icon for freedom in America.
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.
(a) Presentation Authorized.--The President is authorized to award to Rosa Parks, on behalf of the Congress, a gold medal of appropriate design honoring Rosa Parks in recognition of her contributions to the Nation.
(b) Design and Striking.--For the purposes of the award referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury
(hereafter in this Act referred to as the ``Secretary'') shall strike a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary.
SEC. 3. DUPLICATE MEDALS.
The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold medal struck pursuant to section 2, under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, and at a price sufficient to cover the costs thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses, and the cost of the gold medal.
SEC. 4. STATUS AS NATIONAL MEDALS.
The medals struck pursuant to this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code.
SEC. 5. FUNDING.
(a) Authority To Use Fund Amounts.--There is authorized to be charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund an amount not to exceed $30,000 to pay for the cost of the medals authorized by this Act.
(b) Proceeds of Sale.--Amounts received from the sale of duplicate bronze medals under section 3 shall be deposited in the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
____________________
