Gainesville celebrates legacies of civil rights pioneers during Black History Month
Press release from the City of Gainesville
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Local leaders, alongside members of the Rosa Parks Quiet Courage Committee, invite all neighbors to celebrate the legacies of Rosa Parks and Claudette Colvin during a Black History Month ceremony.
When:Â 11 a.m.-noon on Tues., Feb. 24
Where: RTS Rosa Parks Transfer Station, 700 SE 3rd St.
This annual event marks the historic contributions of Rosa Parks (Feb. 4, 1913-Oct. 24, 2005) and is held at the City’s Regional Transit System bus station named in her honor. In 1955, Parks famously refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in defiance of local segregation laws. Her actions sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and helped fuel the Civil Rights Movement and the end of racial segregation.
Tuesday’s program also honors Claudette Colvin (Sept. 5, 1939-Jan. 13, 2026) who—at age 15—refused to surrender her Montgomery bus seat nine months before Parks. Colvin’s age is one reason civil rights leaders did not advance the teenager as the face of the boycott. Colvin later served as a plaintiff in the federal case that led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring Alabama’s bus segregation laws unconstitutional.
Rosa Parks is not a black woman, her grandfather was a white Irishman, she’s a mic, not a Mac. lmao
I remember from history class that Rosa Parks parents were both mixed of black, white, and Native American. She was born in Alabama. Her mixed culture at that time would make her mulatto and she would have been considered black under Alabama segregation laws. Im not arguing any point just offering my history class remembrance.
Bear, this is the kind of history we need to be looking into. Remember there is no such thing as mixed and there is no such thing as race, its tribes.
Also when we talk about mixed with black and native Americans remember the time period, all those mixes were white men mixing with brown women.
The colonizers sowing their royal oats, lol.
These were not white women mixing with the savages, they were the men mixing with the conquered women.
It is true under the one drop rule she would be considered black.
Rosa Parks’ heritage included Irish ancestry through a great-grandfather, rather than a direct grandfather.
Historical records indicate one of her great-grandfathers was of Scotch-Irish descent, specifically identified as James Percival, an indentured servant who married an enslaved woman.
her paternal grandfather was Anderson McCauley (son of a Cherokee /Irish father and Poarch Creek mother), and her maternal grandfather was Sylvester Edwards her mothers father was a white man.
So if her great-grandfather was Scotch-Irish.. Percival, and he married an enslaved woman, then according to “you are what your father is” she is Irish not negro or black.
So Percival had a son, who became her grandfather Anderson McCauley, and her grandfather had a son who became her father James McCauley, then by her patrimonial lineage she is Irish, not black.
A mic, not a Mac.
Take an hour and actually look up each of these individuals according the the fact that there is no such things as mixed and you are what your father is, according to the Bible and it becomes clear….Rosa Parks is nor was she ever a black women or negro.
The Bible is not the law. The one drop rule prevails for racists and anti-semites, unfortunately 2 groups with too much power in American History.
Ok. I am not arguing any point. Being that she had so many different bloodlines running through her DNA I am concluding that she is a American MUTT. Just like I have 6 different bloodlines in my DNA. I am American Mutt also. There is no black, yellow, red, white, pooka dot Americans. You can have cultural and religious traits and customs but at the end of the day you are American period. History shows that states had laws that showed bias , enslaved, and grouped people based on the color of their skin. This occurred to all races and colors through out the world at various times. This country has gone way overboard on trying to make the history of this country evil. You can’t change what happened in tge past just like you can’t change what happened yesterday. This country enacted laws from past history that gave everyone their civil rights and banned bias practices.
It’s not an attempt to make our history evil. It is to recognize the legacy and impact of past practices that have created the current conditions of bias and exclusion. By any metric we have a way to go yet.
The Overboard action is the cleansing of history by the State because it’s uncomfortable.
Yes, you are the problem again. You recognize and acknowledge and move on instead of beating it to death. The cleansing you speak of is overboard action of bearing the issues to death. Nobody wants to hear it anymore. Explain the bias and exclusion. If you talking about how certain leaders like to keep people on a certain side of a city like gainesville or in certain neighborhoods I can see your point. Gainesville and Alachua County claim to be this big blue stronghold of democrats and progressives but yet all of the people you claim to be discriminated against are somehow displaced on certain sides of town and in neighborhoods. Businesses do not want to be in east Gainesville, why? What are all these Blue leaders doing to cause this. They have only been in charge for decades. Why are certain groups of people not allowed to live in Ward’s, Prizzia, or Lil Kenny’s neighborhoods. Hummm i will wait for an answer to that.
You are not a mutt Bear, the mother does not count, it goes by the fathers.
So if you trace the heritage of the men in your bloodline that is what you are.
Its just like all the people that say they are Jewish because their mother was jewish, NO.
You are only Jewish if your father was Jewish.
Just like in the Bible you are only a Hebrew if your father was a Hebrew.
The Bible is the law, because this country and ever over country based its laws off the biblical laws and statues, how do people not know this?
In early America women dressed modestly, why do you think that was…The Bible.
This is what liberalism and progressive politics is about…..freedom liberalism from the way God said to live, progressing away from the way God said to live, and that’s why everything they do is in direct contradiction to the way God said to do it.
Yes, I have six different bloodline on my father’s side and 2 on my mother’s side. I am a American Mutt
That’s impossible Bear, remove all the women, and only track the men on your fathers side, paternal lineage only.
Do not count any of the women on either side and you will see that your are not a mutt.
Irish, Native American, African,or french Native American for great grandfather (great grand mother was wuth two different men grandfather could have been the same or Native American, Italian because my grandmother was with two different men also Father’s bloodline is one of the two. Never had DNA done. Am proud no matter what. So you understand due the women in my family I just consider myself a mutt.
You are either Irish or French, or Italian.
Go ahead and take the DNA test, you get more conclusive results than we do. hihi
Its important to know your roots Bear, and all cultures and tribes have things to be proud of and things to regret.
The most important thing is to preserve your heritage and be proud of who you are.
While also remaining humble about the parts that one would like to forget.
That is how we all get along. Not this race or red vs blue stuff.
I dont regret anything my family did. I dont regret anything I have done. I except history for what it is. Good or bad. That is how we learn to be better people.
It was not personal bear, it was in general applicable to all people.
None the less well said.
This is her father’s, father.
https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/rosa-parks-in-her-own-words/about-this-exhibition/early-life-and-activism/grandfater-anderson-mccauley/
However . . . I still applaud her courage!!
Why was Colvin not made the face of the movement?
Claudette Colvin isn’t as famous as Rosa Parks because civil rights leaders chose Parks as the face of the movement due to Colvin’s age (15), darker skin, and unwed pregnancy, fearing these factors made her a less “respectable” symbol for the national public, whereas Parks was an adult, middle-class NAACP secretary, seen as more trustworthy and appealing to the media.
did you see the part about darker skin? Colvin was a full blooded negro, Parks was not.
How many of our darker skin leaders, were put to the back burner for a lighter skin “mixed” more appealing to the public mulatto….a Chestnut.
Colvin had not connection to the NAACP, Parks did.
Pay Attention!!!
My understanding was that she was under age of 18 a nd the powers to be of the civil rights movement thought she was too young.
to young, darker skin, and a pregnancy out of wedlock.
Mind you, I never heard of Colvin this info is just a quick search.
Remember, mulatto’s were treated better than full blood black people because everyone knew if you were mulatto then you had a white male progenitor.
We need some of the people out here who are 80-90+ to speak up on this, because its obvious that the majority of society do not really understand the nuances that existed during post slavery, segregation and Jim Crow.
This is what happens when you allow the NAACP to control the legacy that is your history.
Yes yes, Rosa Parks. The safe choice. Vetted for over 60 years. Yawn.
How about Carolyn Beatrice Parker? Hell, the whole Parker family is worthy.