Rosa Parks' legacy again celebrated in Gainesville by Rosa Parks Quiet Courage Committee

Community leaders and performance artists participated in an annual event celebrating the legacy of the late Rosa Parks.

Rosa Parks legacy

Parks is considered by many to be one of the bravest civil rights movement leaders, and her contributions to the movement have been recognized locally since 2006 by the Rosa Parks Quiet Courage Committee founded by the Rev. Milford L. Griner, a longtime United Methodist Church minister locally.

Event held to honor Rosa Parks

The committee, along with the city of Gainesville and the city’s Regional Transit System, hosted its 3rd annual Day of Courage program at the Rosa Parks RTS Transfer Station at 700 SE Third St. on Friday to empower attendees to continue fighting against injustice.

"We all have a duty"

“No matter the age, race or educational background, we all have a duty and a responsibility to speak against injustice no matter where it takes place,” Griner said. “I’m stepping down as president, but I will be an advisor. The Rosa Parks Quiet Courage Committee will never die. As long as injustice is with us, it will never die.”

John Alexander, acting director of community affairs for the city of Gainesville, welcomed the audience to the ceremony.

Parks fought for equal opportunities for all people

“We’re here to honor a woman who put her life on the line to make sure we all have equal opportunity,” Alexander said.

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, Alexander said.

"Act of defiance"

Her act of defiance on Dec. 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, 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 and elsewhere throughout the Jim Crow South at the time.

Highlights of ceremony

During the ceremony Friday, there were greetings from Thomas Idoyaga, transit community service specialist for RTS, and an invocation prayer by the Rev. Mary Mitchell, pastor of Bartley Temple United Methodist Church in northeast Gainesville.

Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward presented two proclamations during the ceremony.

Ward proclaimed Dec. 1 “Rosa Parks Day” in the city and also proclaimed the day to be “Rev. Milford L. Griner Day.”

Praise for the Rev. Milford L. Griner

“When I hear the words ‘quiet courage,’ I think of Milford Griner,” Ward said. “Wherever you go, he’s there standing behind you with his hand on your shoulder showing his quiet courage in the community.”

Remembering Rosa: Remembering Rosa

Remarks by local leaders

Remarks were also given by Alachua County Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler; Rodney Long, president and founder of the Martin Luther King Jr. Commission of Florida; Lonnie Scott, city of Gainesville police chief and Evelyn Foxx, NAACP Alachua County branch president.

“We need more Rosa Parks,” Foxx said. “Everything that has happened in the Jim Crow era is coming back to us. We need more people to take a stand.”

Griner said he was appreciative of the proclamation from Ward and said it was the second proudest moment of his life, with the renaming of the RTS bus transfer station being the first.

“I will remember it for the rest of my life,” Griner said. “Everything I did, I did unto the glory of God.”

Final remarks

Griner gave the final remarks encouraging the audience to take up the moral fight of injustice.

“As a president I will be stepping down, but I will never step down from being an advocate for justice,” Griner said. “We will make it. As long as we work together and do what’s right.”

Griner stepping down

The committee was founded in 2006 to honor Parks’ legacy after her death on Oct. 24, 2005.

Griner, 65, announced he will be stepping down as president of the committee on Dec. 31 due to a series of on-going health issues, including contracting COVID-19 twice and a hospital stay for bacterial pneumonia in December 2022.

“It has been a wonderful 18 years,” Griner said. “It is a great day, but a bittersweet moment.”

Griner said with trying to maintain his health, being in ministry full-time, and fulfilling family and community obligations such as the Police Advisory Council, he believed it was time to transfer the leadership role to someone within the committee.

The committee has awarded members of the community for their sacrifice for 18 years.

The committee also played an integral part in renaming the RTS bus transfer station after Parks in 2008 after the city commission unanimously voted for its approval.

“No matter the age, race or educational background, we all have a duty and a responsibility to speak against injustice no matter where it takes place,” Griner said. “I’m stepping down as president, but I will be an advisor. The Rosa Parks Quiet Courage Committee will never die. As long as injustice is with us, it will never die.”

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Gainesville-based organization once again honors the late Rosa Parks