BOSTON — Massachusetts could soon be marking its first Rosa Parks Day, thanks to the efforts of Wil Darcangelo, who went before the lawmakers last Tuesday to advocate for a bill commemorating her life and “setting the table” for the future.
“It is a symbol of our desire to fulfill the purpose of demonstrated equality in our democracy,” said Darcangelo, minister of the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Fitchburg, in front of the State Administration Committee at the Statehouse.
Parks, a civil rights icon, was arrested more than 60 years ago after refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Ala.
In the days following her arrest, the Montgomery bus boycott began, a key event in the civil rights movement led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.
The boycott ended a year later when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law Parks was convicted of violating as unconstitutional. Parks was active in the civil rights movement until her death in 2005.
At Darcangelo’s request, state Rep. Stephan Hay, of Fitchburg, filed a bill earlier this year to establish Feb. 4 as Rosa Parks Day.
If approved by lawmakers, Massachusetts would join the four other states that celebrate Rosa Parks Day: California, Missouri, Ohio, and Oregon.
Ohio and Oregon commemorate the day on Dec. 1, which is the day she refused to relinquish her seat, while California and Missouri honor Parks on her birthday, Feb. 4.
Darcangelo said having the holiday in February would be better because it’s Black History Month and less likely to be forgotten during the holidays.
Darcangelo said though Parks wasn’t the first person to refuse to give up her seat, she was a symbol recognized as such.
“She is the emblem of all those who were tired of giving way to those who did not deserve their deference,” he told legislators. “I politely and respectfully urge you to consider the importance of small but meaningful gestures such as this to approve not only this one, but in its spirit, create more.”
Darcangelo urged lawmakers to pass the bill because it is an opportunity to sculpt a better world moving forward.
“As a minister, I feel it’s a duty to assist with the solution in some way toward any particular social justice issue,” he said.
Darcangelo said the irony of a white male advocating for racial justice on behalf of others is not lost on him.
He added that his job, as a white male, is to talk less and listen more to those who suffer in the face of these injustices.
Darcangelo said he’s approaching the subject with “extreme humility” and taking action where he feels he can make a difference.
“We need to be a part of the solution, but in a way that builds tables and invites conversation rather than dictate the nature of that conversation,” he said. “If we maintain a stance of arrogance that we know how to solve the problem, then that only further perpetuates the problem.”
He said the holiday is only the first step toward addressing the problem.
“We have a duty to take some action for the improvement of our world even when we might be a part of the demographic that caused the problem in the first place,” Darcangelo said. “A Rosa Parks Day is not an answer, it is an entry into the conversation.”
This year, Fitchburg celebrated Rosa Parks Day on Feb. 4, with Mayor Stephen DiNatale proclaiming the day as a gesture of support for the preservation and recognition of American civil rights history.
