Published: March 16, 2006 01:27 pm      

Alabama House panel OKs bill to pardon Rosa Parks and others

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Civil rights icon Rosa Parks and hundreds of others arrested for violating segregation-era laws would be pardoned by the state of Alabama under a bill approved Thursday by a House committee.

The House Judiciary Committee, on a voice vote without a dissent, approved the bill which if enacted will be called “The Rosa Parks Act.” It now goes to the full House for debate.

The sponsor, Rep. Thad McClammy, D-Montgomery, said the bill is meant to cover people arrested during and before the historic Montgomery bus boycott, which started 50 years ago when Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man.

While the law allowing segregated seating on city buses was later overturned, her conviction is still on the record, according to the bill’s sponsor.

McClammy said his bill would also include people arrested trying to register to vote in Selma and others charged with violating laws aimed at separating the races going back to the 1940s or earlier.

“This is something that’s long overdue. It’s something aimed at giving the state a forward look,” McClammy said.

Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, a veteran of the civil rights movement, said he hopes the bill passes.

“I think it’s wonderful. There were 89 people arrested during the bus boycott and I think every one of them should be pardoned because of the contribution they made to the state and the nation,” Holmes said.

Holmes said the 89 arrested during the boycott does not include people arrested in the years before the boycott for refusing to give up their seats on city buses.

There was no opposition to the proposed legislation in the judiciary Committee. The bill was praised by Republicans and Democrats.

“I think it’s a tribute to Rosa Parks,” said Rep. Steve McMillan, R-Gulf Shores. “I can’t imagine anyone opposing this.”

The Legislature is in the final 10 days of the 2006 session, but the committee chairman, Rep. Marcel Black, D-Tuscumbia, said he believes there’s enough time to pass the bill.

“These convictions were based on rules, laws, ordinances and mores that have been proven to be not only unconstitutional, but unfair,” Black said.