The late Rosa Parks
The Black Caucus at UCSF will host a tribute to the late civil rights icon Rosa Parks on Friday, Nov. 4 on the UCSF Parnassus campus.
Former San Francisco Supervisor Willie B. Kennedy will give a keynote speech at noon in the School of Nursing building, room 225.
Parks died on October 24 in Detroit. She was 92. She lay in honor in Montgomery, Alabama, and in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington - the first woman so honored -- before her body was returned on Monday night to Detroit, the city where she had lived since 1957, according to CNN.
As a mark of respect for Parks, UCSF will join with other institutions across the nation lowering its flags to half-mast today, the day of her interment.
An African American seamstress, Parks is remembered for the example she set refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery city bus on December 1, 1955. This act of defiance challenged mainstream norms of the day, began a boycott of Montgomery buses and launched the modern movement for civil rights.
Parks was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996 by then President Bill Clinton. Today, Parks is hailed as one of the most influential icons of the 20th century.
Links:
Wikipedia: Rosa Parks
