Las Vegas Road to be renamed Rosa Parks Road

Feb 01, 2007 10:02:16

Las Vegas Road to be renamed Rosa Parks Road Saturday's event to dedicate street to civil rights icon She refused to move to the back of the bus. She refused to be talked down to. And she refused to let the oppression of blacks continue in the United States. Now, more than 50 years after her historical act of courage, several residents of the Coachella Valley refuse to let Rosa Parks get lost in the history books. "She sat so a lot of other people could stand for something," said Jarvis Crawford, co-chairman of the Rosa Parks Committee of Palm Springs. "The least we could do is name a street after her." Parks is credited with launching the civil-rights movement in 1955 in Montgomery, Ala., by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man, a crime for which she was sent to jail. She died in 2005 at age 92. On Saturday, the city of Palm Springs will officially name a Palm Springs thoroughfare Rosa Parks Road. The dedication will rename Las Vegas Road. The city approved the move in June. "It's a sense of duty to do this in her honor," Angie Patrick, committee secretary, said. "Plus, it shows the city's commitment to diversity and unity." Rosa Parks Road will be the second street in Palm Springs named after a prominent black person. The first is Crossley Road, named for businessman and politician Lawrence Crossley, who built the first golf course in the valley for Palm Springs pioneer P.T. Stevens. Though some have voiced disappointment over the lack of Coachella Valley streets named in recognition of black people, Palm Springs Mayor Ron Oden noted, "It's one more than it used to be; that's how I look at it." And although the main goal of renaming the street is to honor Parks, Patrick hopes it will spark a movement to push for a major Coachella Valley street named after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. "Practically every major city in the nation has a Martin Luther King Boulevard or Martin Luther King school," Patrick said. "Why not us?"