On January 8, Gov. Maura Healey signed Bill H.3075 An Act Relative to Rosa Parks Day, making February 4 each year a day set aside in honor of civil rights icon Rosa Parks in Massachusetts. This makes the Commonwealth the ninth state in the country to recognize Rosa Parks’ profound contribution to the civil rights movement. There are also growing calls for this day to be observed at the federal level.
On February 4 at 6 p.m., an event to commemorate the signing will take place at the Bulfinch Meetinghouse, 725 Main Street in Lancaster, where the bill’s initiator, Unitarian Universalist Rev. Wil Darcangelo, serves as Minister.
Rev. Wil Darcangelo said: “There is only so much one person can do to effect social transformation in the world. So few of us are truly in a position to cultivate major change on our own. But each of us is capable of at least some act of kindness and honor that might work in favor of the world we wish to see. This annual state recognition will not save the world, but it will have its energetic impact nonetheless. And hopefully the annual recognition of this woman, who has personally inspired me so much, will create at least a small social impact in service of racial justice and awareness of civil rights history in the United States. My calling as a Unitarian minister compels me to seek out ways in which I can do that, especially now when we need it so much.”
Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash