Rep. Sewell leads the push for Rosa Parks Federal Holiday

Wednesday, ahead of the 68th anniversary of Rosa Parks’ arrest, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, AL-07, was joined by Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chairman Steven Horsford, NV-04, Rep. Joyce Beatty, OH-03, and members of the CBC for a press conference on Capitol Hill urging passage of her bill, H.R. 308, the Rosa Parks Day Act. The bill would make December 1st a federal holiday commemorating the arrest of Rosa Parks. The Rosa Parks Day Act was the first bill that Rep. Sewell introduced in the 118th Congress. 

Watch the press conference here.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a public bus, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott and galvanizing the Civil Rights Movement.

There is currently no federal holiday honoring a woman or a Black woman.

Bill text is available here.