FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(HUNTSVILLE, AL) — Chris Singleton, the son of the late Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton – one of the nine people killed in the Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., in 2015 – was the keynote speaker at this year’s celebration of Alabama civil rights icon Rosa Parks. Singleton is a motivational speaker, author, and former professional athlete. The celebration was Sunday, Dec. 15th at 4 p.m. at St. John AME Church, 229 Church Street, Huntsville, Ala.
This commemoration service was presented by the Rosa Parks Committee in Huntsville/Madison County and hosted by State Reps. Laura Hall and Anthony Daniels. It also featured a Q&A discussion with Singleton, music, and presentation of awards to the essay contest winners and others. The public was encouraged to attend this free event.
Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Ala. on February 4, 1913. She joined the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1943. One year later, she was dispatched to Abbeville, Ala. to investigate the brutal, racially motivated gang rape of Mrs. Recy Taylor.
Mrs. Parks entered civil rights history once again on December 1, 1955, when she refused to relinquish her seat on a public bus to a white man in violation of Montgomery’s racial segregation laws. This made her the symbol of a bus boycott organized by the Montgomery Improvement Association, which was led by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. One year later, the segregated seating on the Montgomery bus system was ruled unconstitutional by the federal courts, delivering a victory for Mrs. Parks, the city’s activists and black citizens. Mrs. Parks died on October 24, 2005, in Detroit, Michigan.
For more information about the Rosa Parks Day Committee, please contact David Person, the Committee’s media liaison, at 256.701.2594.
