The Rosa Parks Quiet Courage Committee honored Rosa Parks on the eighth anniversary of her death Thursday.
The event was held at the Wilhelmina Johnson Center, 321 NW 10th St., to honor Parks’ role in the struggle for human rights.
Nkwanda Jah, director of the Cultural Arts Coalition and a member of the Quiet Courage Committee, said the fight for equality is still not over.
“We’ve not gone nearly as far as we could,” Jah said.
Three speakers attended the event and spoke about what Parks and her legacy meant to them.
“She was a symbol for someone who doesn’t mind fighting for what she believes in no matter what trouble may come,” said Milford Griner, president and founder of the Quiet Courage Committee.
In 2005, Griner saw that no one had done a tribute for Parks. That year, he organized a tribute and more than 300 people attended. The event has happened every year since Parks died in 2005.
“We may not know much about the day she was born or her death, but that Thursday, December 1, 1955 is blazed in the annals of history,” Griner said.
Karen Cole-Smith, one of the vice presidents of the Quiet Courage Committee, said that Parks’ remembrance means everything to her. The committee even goes into elementary schools in Gainesville and tells the story of Rosa Parks.
Smith said Parks’ story gives her a greater appreciation for sacrifice and the things people take for granted.
Parks and her story are particularly important to Gainesville residents because of the Rosa Parks Downtown Station, Griner said. The bus station was named after Parks in 2008.
The columns at the bus station also have pictures of famous African-Americans on them, serving as a reminder of other’s contributions, Smith said.
Patricia Hilliard-Nunn, UF lecturer of African-American studies, leads a congregation Thursday at the Wilhelmina Johnson Resource Center for the eighth anniversary of Rosa Parks’ death.
