Miami-Dade Transit Honors Civil Rights Icon Rosa Parks Miami-Dade County elected officials, Metrobus operators, and other Transit staff joined residents on Monday, July 17, to dedicate the Central Transportation Building to Rosa Parks, Mother of the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat to a white male passenger on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in December 1955 awoke America to the injustice of Jim Crow segregation laws. "She was not a wealthy woman, she was not a public figure, and she did not earn a Grammy award, but she did help to change the laws of this nation during an important era in American history," said Commissioner Dorrin Rolle, District 2. "The mother of the modern-day Civil Rights Movement rightly deserves this honor, and it is appropriate that a transit facility such as this one carry her name." Miami-Dade Transit's 15,000-square-foot Central Transportation Building, located at 3300 NW 33 Avenue, is now adorned with a beautiful bronze plaque depicting the late civil rights icon Rosa Parks.

HONORING ROSA PARKS: Pictured at Transit building dedication, from left, Rev. Carl Johnson, 93rd Street Baptist; Miami-Dade Comm. Dennis Moss; Miami-Dade Comm. Katy Sorenson; Cong. Carrie P. Meek (ret.); Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez; Parks' grandnephew Nicholas McCauley; Miami-Dade Comm. Dorrin Rolle; Parks' nephew William McCauley and wife Sonia to his right; Transit Director Roosevelt Bradley; and King Institute Exec. Dir. John T. Jones Jr.

The inscription on the plaque reads as follows: "To honor the Mother of the American Civil Rights Movement for her internationally recognized leadership, vision, and pioneering efforts, this building is dedicated as the Rosa Parks Transportation Building."

The Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved the renaming of the transit facility earlier this year as a tribute to Parks' historical contribution to the Civil Rights Movement and her leadership in making public transportation accessible to all.

Parks' subsequent arrest and trial for this act of civil disobedience triggered the Montgomery Bus Boycott, one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation in American history.

The civil rights pioneer's courageous actions not only earned her an iconic status in American culture but left an enduring legacy for civil rights movements worldwide.

"We are deeply honored and proud to posthumously dedicate one of our transit facilities in memory of Rosa Parks," said Miami-Dade Transit Director Roosevelt Bradley. "She understood the role of every individual citizen in a democracy."