Remembering Rosa

Voleer Thomas
·3 min read
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Acts of courage were remembered during a ceremony to honor a national civil rights icon and a north central Florida historian and activist.

The Rosa Parks Quiet Courage Committee hosted "A Day of Courage” to mark the 66th anniversary of Park’s refusal to give up her seat on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama.

The Rev. Milford L. Griner, president and founder of the Rosa Parks Quiet Courage Committee, speaks during the "A Day of Courage" ceremony held to honor Parks for sparking a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama on Dec. 1, 1955, that led to the end of the legal Jim Crow era in America.
The Rev. Milford L. Griner, president and founder of the Rosa Parks Quiet Courage Committee, speaks during the "A Day of Courage" ceremony held to honor Parks for sparking a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama on Dec. 1, 1955, that led to the end of the legal Jim Crow era in America.
This plaque was presented to the family of the late Patricia Hilliard-Nunn, Ph.D., a local Black history buff and community activist, by the Rosa Parks Quiet Courage Committee, of which she was a founding member.
This plaque was presented to the family of the late Patricia Hilliard-Nunn, Ph.D., a local Black history buff and community activist, by the Rosa Parks Quiet Courage Committee, of which she was a founding member.
Kenneth Nunn, Ph.D., at the podium, shares a few remarks and a call to action after receiving a plaque on behalf of his late wife Patricia Hilliard-Nunn, Ph.D., for the work she has done for the Rosa Parks Quiet Courage Committee and the community at-large as a historian and community activist.
Kenneth Nunn, Ph.D., at the podium, shares a few remarks and a call to action after receiving a plaque on behalf of his late wife Patricia Hilliard-Nunn, Ph.D., for the work she has done for the Rosa Parks Quiet Courage Committee and the community at-large as a historian and community activist.

The event was held on Wednesday at the Rosa Parks RTS Transfer Station at 700 SE Third St., across the street from Depot Park.

Th station was renamed in honor of Parks in 2008 by the Gainesville City Commission after a successful lobbying and fundraising campaign.

Karen Cole-Smith, the committee's second vice president, presided over the ceremony.

“Many people thought I was tired. I was tired of giving in to something I knew was unjust,” said Cole-Smith, reciting a part of what Parks wrote in her memoir — "Rosa Parks: My Story" — that Parks wrote with the late University of Florida English professor Jim Haskins.

Known as the "mother" of the civil rights movement, Parks took a stand when she refused to give up a city bus seat for a white passenger and thus sparked the beginning of the movement. Her act of defiance on Dec. 1, 1955, in Montgomery and her arrest led the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to lead a bus boycott protesting the arrest of Parks and the racist laws in Montgomery.

The theme for the event was “Recalling Rosa, A New Call for Courage.”

Vivian Filer, first vice president of the committee, welcomed the audience and Erma Sams, the committee's secretary, gave the history of the committee.

The program included a proclamation presented by Gainesville Mayor Lauren Poe and freedom songs were sung by Kali Blount and Annie Pearl Curtis.

Guest speakers included Alachua County Commissioner Charles Chestnut IV, NAACP Alachua County branch President Evelyn Foxx, Tony Jones, chief of the Gainesville Police Department, Martin Luther King Jr. Commission President Rodney Long, founder and president of the Martin Luther King Jr. Commission of Florida, Gainesville District 1 City Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker, Gainesville District 2 City Commissioner Harvey Ward and Alachua County Sheriff Clovis Watson Jr.

The late Patricia Hilliard-Nunn, Ph.D., a founding and longtime member of the committee, was remembered during the ceremony.

About $11,000 was donated by the local community, various organizations and groups to pay for a bronze plaque depicting Parks’ image.

The Rev. Milford L. Griner, president of the committee that he founded in 2006, presented a plaque to Hilliard-Nunn's husband, Kenneth Nunn, Ph.D., a University of Florida Levin College of Law professor, to honor his wife.

Nunn is also the associate director of the law school's Center for Children and Families and he is the Dr. Patricia Hilliard-Nunn Memorial Racial Justice Term Professor.

“Her legacy as a historian, an activist, a community change agent will always be in our lives,” Griner said. “We will always appreciate the years she served on the committee. We will never forget. We thank you for sharing your wife with this committee."

“I know she’s smiling down on us with this award,” Nunn said. “It is probably one of her favorite awards she received.”

Nunn told the audience how they can honor Parks and Hilliard-Nunn’s legacies.

“Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it,” Nunn said. “It is time for a new Civil Rights movement. It is clear they are not listening to us and they are listening to the big dollar donors. We got to be out there and let people know. The best way to honor Patricia’s legacy is for us to begin that fight and that struggle.”

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Remembering Rosa