The city of Gainesville, in partnership with the Rosa Parks Quiet Courage Committee (RPQCC) and Gainesville Regional Transit System (RTS), will hold the fourth annual “Day of Courage” on Tuesday, Dec. 3.
The event, which honors the life and legacy of beloved Civil Rights Movement icon Rosa Parks, will take place at 11 a.m. at the Rosa Parks RTS Bus Station located at 700 SE 3rd St. in Gainesville. The theme of this year’s program is “Still We Rise: A Time for New Courage.”
Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward, along with other city and community leaders, will give remarks.
The annual event remembers Parks when she refused to move from a White Passengers Only seat on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus on Dec. 1, 1955. She was arrested, taken to jail, fingerprinted and treated like a criminal for her actions based on the color of her skin. These actions sparked the Civil Rights Movement and led to the emergence of then-unknown pastor Martin Luther King Jr.
Tuesday’s event will mark the last public event for Rev. Milford L. Griner, the founder and president of the RPQCC, after 19 years. In 2025, the committee will celebrate its 20th anniversary since its founding in 2005 following the death of Parks on Oct. 24, 2005, in Detroit, Michigan at the age of 93.
Griner, who retired in 2021 after serving 37 years as pastor of Freedom United Methodist Church in Northeast Gainesville, will announce the next president of the RPQCC effective in January 2025.
According to a press release sent by Griner, “The new president will carry on the important work of continuing and maintaining the legacy of Mother Parks by honoring local residents whose lives exemplify the work of Mother Parks.”