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Local memorial service to honor Rosa Parks

The event in Dade City on Sunday will memorialize the civil rights icon and bring home her message.

By MOLLY MOORHEAD
Published November 3, 2005

DADE CITY - Local activists are planning a memorial service for Rosa Parks, the Alabama woman who helped launch the civil rights movement when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man 50 years ago.

Mrs. Parks died last week at age 92. National leaders responded by making her the first woman ever to lie in honor in the Capitol in Washington, D.C. At her funeral Wednesday, former President Bill Clinton eulogized her before a national television audience.

But organizers say it's important to honor her at all levels.

"I think many communities will be commemorating her life, and I think it's appropriate to do it anywhere," said the Rev. Mitchell Davis, pastor of Church of God in Christ in Dade City.

Davis, who came to Dade City in 1945, attended segregated schools and lived in a segregated neighborhood.

"Unless you worked together, there was very little interaction between blacks and whites. There were exceptions of course," said Mitchell, who is black.

Mitchell was one of those exceptions. He said that while working in a paint store as a high school senior, he befriended a white co-worker. The co-worker attended the white high school and invited Davis to his graduation.

Davis and his cousin went to the ceremony, where another guest told them the event was only for friends and family of the graduates.

"I said, "Well, I have a friend who's graduating,"' Davis said.

Soon three police officers asked Davis and his cousin to leave. They did so peacefully. The next day Davis said the police chief came and apologized for the incident. The year was 1963.

"It caused a lot of other little discussions to get started in the community," Davis said. "From time to time, we need to discuss race, even though some folks don't like to."

Sunday's service, at Mount Zion AME Church on Seventh Street, will include singing, dancing, speeches and readings. It is sponsored by the African-American Heritage Society of East Pasco County.

The event is free and open to the public. Davis said he hopes not just African-Americans will attend because they were not the only victims of segregation.

"Not only (black people) were restricted by segregation. White people were, too," he said. "Many white people wanted to be free from that limitation."

The event, he said, is also a chance to teach a new generation that did not witness the events of the civil rights movement.

"Perhaps if something comes to the community they will have an opportunity to participate and learn and hopefully perpetuate those ideals that Rosa Parks represents," Davis said.

[Last modified November 7, 2005, 01:10:19]