LEADER JEFFRIES STATEMENT ON 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARREST OF ROSA PARKS

Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries released the following statement:

Seventy years ago today, Rosa Parks was arrested for courageously refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her act of protest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 381 days of strategic nonviolent direct action against Jim Crow segregation. Taking a stand was nothing new for Mrs. Parks, who spent years investigating cases of racist and sexual violence against African-Americans. 

Rosa Parks is an American hero. During her lifetime, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The United States Capitol is home to a statue in her honor with a permanent seat that no one can ever take away. Unfortunately, Donald Trump and unqualified sycophants like Pete Hegseth want to erase stories like that of Rosa Parks from the history books and wipe out the progress that we have made as a nation. Their small-minded vision of America will not prevail. 

House Democrats will never stop fighting to tell the unvarnished truth of the American journey and protect freedoms that heroes like Rosa Parksput everything on the line to make possible. Our struggle continues until victory is won.