Mobile County To Recognize Rosa Parks Dec. 1

Posted on: Dec 1st, 2023 | News and Announcements Press Releases featured news

MOBILE COUNTY, Ala. – In accordance with the state of Alabama holiday schedule, Mobile County will commemorate Rosa Parks Day on Dec. 1. Mobile County offices will remain open on this commemoration day.

In honor of the civil rights activist, two exhibits will be on display in the atrium of Mobile Government Plaza. They are entitled, “Tired of Giving In: Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott” and “The Women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.” Funded through a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, both exhibits are on loan from the Troy University Rosa Parks Library. The exhibits will be on display, from noon on Monday, Nov. 27, until 5 p.m. on Dec. 8, and can be viewed during Government Plaza’s normal business hours.

On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery. Her defiant act led to the yearlong Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped to usher in the civil rights movement. Parks became an NAACP activist in 1943, participating in several high-profile civil rights campaigns. She also organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders Dr. Martin Luther King and E.D. Nixion. The United States Congress has honored Rosa Parks as “The First Lady of Civil Rights” and “The Mother of the Freedom Movement.”

In her 1992 autobiography, Parks insisted that more work should be done in the fight for justice. During her lifetime, she received countless accolades, including the NAACP 1979 Spingarn Medal, and a posthumous statue in the United States Capitol’s National Statuary Hall. Upon her death in 2005, she was the first woman to “lie in honor” in the Capitol Rotunda.

This year will mark Mobile County’s first observance of Rosa Parks Day. Alabama began recognizing the day in 2018.