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   Through her efforts, Ms. Parks has become a living embodiment of this principle. And it is entirely appropriate that this Congress takes the opportunity to acknowledge her contribution by authorizing the award of a Congressional Gold Medal to her. Her courage, what we in Alabama might call ``gumption'', at a critical juncture resulted in historic change.

   Certainly, there is much still to be done. True equality, the total elimination of discrimination, and a real sense of ease and acceptance among the races has not been fully reached. But it is fair to say that in the history of this effort, the most dramatic and productive chapter was ignited by the lady we honor today.

   Ms. Parks' story is well known, but it bears repeating. She was born on February 4, 1913, in the small town of Tuskegee AL to Mr. James and Leona McCauley. As a young child, she moved to Montgomery with her mother, who was a local schoolteacher. Like many Southern cities, the Montgomery of Ms. Parks' youth was a segregated city with numerous laws mandating the unequal treatment of people based on the

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   For this act of civic defiance, Ms. Parks set off a chain of events that have led some to refer to her as the ``Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.'' Her arrest led to the Montgomery bus boycott, and organized movement led by a young minister, then unknown, named Martin Luther King, Jr., who had been preaching at the historic Baptist church located on Montgomery's Dexter Avenue. The bus boycott lasted 382 days, and its impact directly led to the integration of the bus lines while the attention generated helped lift Dr. King to national prominence. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to rule on the constitutionality of the Montgomery law which Ms. Parks had defied and the court struck it down.

   This powerful image, that of a hard working American ordered to the back of the bus, simply because of her race, was a catalytic event. It was the spark that caused a nation to stop accepting things as they had been and focused everyone on the fundamental issue--whether we could continue as a segregated society. As a result of the movement Ms. Parks helped start, today's Montgomery is very different from the Montgomery of Ms. Parks' youth. Today, the citizens of Montgomery look with a great deal of historical pride upon the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Today's Montgomery is home to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization devoted to the cause of civil rights and also the Civil Rights Memorial, a striking monument of black granite and cascading water which memorializes the individuals who gave their lives in the pursuit of equal justice. Today's Montgomery is a city in which its history as the ``Capital of the Confederacy'' and its history as the ``Birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement'' are both recognized, understood and reconciled. But Montgomery is not alone in this development. Many American cities owe the same debt of gratitude to Ms. Parks that Montgomery does. In fact, Ms. Parks' contributions

   may extend beyond even the borders of our nation. In the book ``Bus Ride to Justice,'' Mr. Fred Gray, who gained fame while in his 20's as Ms. Parks' attorney in the bus desegregation case and as the lead attorney in many of Alabama's and the Nation's most important civil rights cases, wrote these words, and I don't think they are an exaggeration:

   Little did we know that we had set in motion a force that would ripple throughout Alabama, the South, the nation, and even the world. But from the vantage point of almost 40 years later, there is a direct correlation between what we started in Montgomery and what has subsequently happened in China, eastern Europe, South Africa, and even more recently, in Russia. While it is inaccurate to say that we all sat down and deliberately planned a movement that would echo and reverberate around the world, we did work around the clock, planning strategy and creating an atmosphere that gave strength, courage, faith and hope to people of all races, creeds, colors and religions around the world. And it all started on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, with Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955.

   For her courage and her conviction, and for her role in changing Alabama, the South, the nation and the world for the better, our Nation owes thanks to Ms. Parks. I hope that this body will extend its thanks and recognition to her by awarding her the Congressional Gold Medal.

   Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, Rosa Parks is truly one of this Nation's greatest heroes. Her personal bravery and self-sacrifice have shaped our Nation's history and are remembered with respect and with reverence by us all.

   Forty three years ago--December 1995--in Montgomery, Alabama the modern civil rights movement began. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and move to the back of the bus. The strength and spirit of this courageous woman captured the consciousness of not only the American people but the entire world.

   My home state of Michigan proudly claims Rosa Parks as one of our own. Rosa Parks and her husband made the journey to Michigan in 1957. Unceasing threats on their lives and persistent harassment by phone prompted the move to Detroit where Rosa Park's brother resided.

   Rosa Park's arrest for violating the city's segregation laws was the catalyst for the Montgomery bus boycott. Her stand on that December day in 1955 was not an isolated incident but part of a lifetime of struggle for equality and justice. For instance, twelve years earlier, in 1943, Rosa Parks had been arrested for violating another one of the city's bus related segregation laws, which required African Americans to pay their fares at the front of the bus then get off of the bus and re-board from the bus at the rear. The driver of that bus was the same driver with whom Rosa Parks would have her confrontation 12 years later.

   The rest is history--the boycott which Rosa Parks began was the beginning of an American revolution that elevated the status of African Americans nationwide and introduced to the world a young leader who would one day have a national holiday declared in his honor, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

   The Congressional Gold Medal is a fitting tribute to Rosa Parks--the gentle warrior who decided that she would no longer tolerate the humiliation and demoralization of racial segregation on a bus.

   We have come a long way towards achieving Dr. King's dream of justice and equality for all. But we still have much work to do. Let us rededicate ourselves to continuing the struggle on Civil Rights, and to human rights in Rosa Parks name.

   Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a brief biography of the life and times and movement which was sparked by Rosa Parks, the mother of the civil rights movement, and excerpted from USL Biographies, be printed in the RECORD.

   There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

   Rosa Parks--American Social Activist

   ``I felt just resigned to give what I could to protect against the way I was being treated.''

   INTRODUCTION

   On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man who wanted it. By this simple act, which today would seem unremarkable, she set in motion the civil rights movement, which led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and ultimately ensured that today all black Americans must be given equal treatment with whites under the law.

   Parks did not know that she was making history nor did she intend to do so. She simply knew that she was tired after a long day's work and did not want to move. Because of her fatigue and because she was so determined, America was changed forever. Segregation was on its way out.

   GROWING UP IN A SEGREGATED SOCIETY

   In the first half of this century, Montgomery, Alabama, was totally segregated, like so many other cities in the South. In this atmosphere Parks and her brother grew up. They had been brought to Montgomery by their mother, Leona (Edwards) McCauley, when she and their father separated in 1915. Their father, James McCauley, went away north and they seldom saw him, but they were made welcome by their mother's family and passed their childhood among cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents, and great-grandparents.

   Parks's mother was a schoolteacher, and Parks was taught by her until the age of eleven, when she went to Montgomery Industrial School for Girls. It was, of course, an all-black school, as was Booker T. Washington High School, which she attended briefly. Virtually everything in Montgomery was for ``blacks only'' or ``whites only,'' and Parks became used to obeying the segregation laws, though she found them humiliating.

   When Parks was twenty, she married Raymond Parks, a barber, and moved out of her mother's home. Parks took in sewing and worked at various jobs over the years. She also became an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), working as secretary of the Montgomery chapter.

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   SILENT PROTESTS

   In 1955 Parks was forty-two years old, and she had taken to protesting segregation in her own quiet way--for instance, by walking up the stairs of a building rather than riding in an elevator marked ``blacks only.'' She was well respected in the black community for her work with the Montgomery Voters League as well as the NAACP. The Voters League was a group that helped black citizens pass the various tests that had been set up to make it difficult for them to register as voters.

   As well as avoiding black-only elevators, Parks often avoided traveling by bus, preferring to walk home from work when she was not too tired to do so. The buses were a constant irritation to all black passengers. The front four rows were reserved for whites (and remained empty even when there were not enough white passengers to fill them). The back section, which was always very crowded, was for black passengers. In between were some rows that were really part of the black section, but served as an overflow area for white passengers. If the white section was full, black passengers in the middle section had to vacate their seats--a whole row had to be vacated, even if only one white passenger required a seat.

   THE ARREST OF ROSA PARKS

   This is what happened on the evening of December 1, 1955: Parks took the bus because she was feeling particularly tired after a long day in the department store where she worked as a seamstress. She was sitting in the middle section, glad to be off her feet at last, when a white man boarded the bus and demanded that her row be cleared because the white section was full. The others in the row obediently moved to the back of the bus, but Parks just didn't feel like standing for the rest of the journey, and she quietly refused to move.

   At this, the white bus driver threatened to call the police unless Parks gave up her seat, but she calmly replied ``Go ahead and call them.'' By the time the police arrived, the driver was very angry, and when asked whether he wanted Parks to be arrested or let off with a warning, he insisted on arrest. So this respectable middle-aged woman was taken to the police station, where she was fingerprinted and jailed. She was allowed to make one phone call. She called an NAACP lawyer, who arranged for her to be released on bail.

   THE BUS BOYCOTT

   Word of Parks' arrest spread quickly, and the Women's Political Council decided to protest her treatment by organizing a boycott of the buses. The boycott was set for December 5, the day of Parks' trial, but Martin Luther King, Jr., and other prominent members of Montgomery's black community realized that here was a chance to take a firm stand on segregation. As a result, the Montgomery Improvement Association was formed to organize an boycott that would continue until the bus segregation laws were changed. Leaflets were distributed telling people not to ride the buses, and other forms of transport were relied on.

   The boycott lasted 382 days, causing the bus company to lose a vast amount of money. Meanwhile, Parks was fined for failing to obey a city ordinance, but on the advice of her lawyers she refused to pay the fine so that they could challenge the segregation law in court. The following year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Montgomery segregation law illegal, and the boycott was at last called off. Yet Parks had started far more than a bus boycott. Other cities followed Montgomery's example and were protesting their segregation laws. The civil rights movement was underway.

   MOTHER OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

   Parks has been hailed as ``the mother of the civil rights movement,'' but this was not an easy role for her. Threats and constant phone calls she received during the boycott caused her husband to have a nervous breakdown, and in 1957 they moved to Detroit, where Parks' brother, Sylvester, lived. There Parks continued her work as a seamstress, but she had become a public figure and was often sought out to give talks about civil rights.

   Over the years, Parks has received several honorary degrees, and in 1965 Congressman John Conyers of Detroit appointed her to his staff. Parks' husband died in 1977 and she retired in 1988, but she has continued to work for the betterment of the black community. She is particularly eager to help the young, and in 1987 she established the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development, a training school for Detroit teenagers.

   Each year sees more honors showered upon her. In 1990, some three thousand people attended the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the seventy-seventh birthday of the indomitable campaigner and former seamstress, Rosa Parks.

   Mr. LEVIN. I thank the Chair and I thank our colleagues from Michigan and Alabama.

   By Mrs. FEINSTEIN:

   S. 532. A bill to provide increased funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and Urban Parks and Recreation Recovery Programs, to resume the funding of the State grants program of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and to provide for the acquisition and development of conservation and recreation facilities and programs in urban areas, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

   PUBLIC LANDS AND RECREATION INVESTMENT ACT OF 1999

   Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, today I am introducing the Public Lands and Recreation Investment Act of 1999. This bill will provide funding for two of our nation's most important conservation and recreation programs--the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the Urban Parks and Recreation Recovery Act--that have been woefully underfunded in recent years.

   Every year, the Federal government collects about $4 billion from oil and gas leases on the Outer Continental Shelf. These leases have detrimental impacts on our environment, so it is fitting that in 1965 Congress created the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This fund is authorized to use $900 million annually in Outer Continental Shelf lease payments to purchase park and recreation lands in or near our national parks, wildlife refuges, national forests, and other public lands . The fund also is supposed to provide grants to states, so that state and local governments may purchase parklands and recreation facilities.

   Acquisition of these lands protects some of our nation's most crucial natural resources, including key watersheds that provide drinking water to millions of Americans, and vital wildlife habitat for endangered species. Public lands also provide recreation opportunities for millions of Americans, and open spaces in increasingly crowded urban areas. Over the years, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has protected lands in all 50 States, including such special places as Yellowstone National Park, the Everglades, and the California Desert.

   Unfortunately, the Land and Water Conservation Fund's tremendous promise has not yet been fulfilled. Last year Congress and the President provided only $328 million of the $900 million collected by the Land and Water Conservation Fund for land acquisition. The rest went back into the Treasury, for deficit reduction or spending on other programs. The Land and Water Conservation Fund has collected over $21 billion since its creation in 1965, but only $9 billion has been spent. Unappropriated balances in the fund now total $13 billion, and they are growing every year.

   In the meantime, a huge backlog has developed in the federal acquisition of environmentally sensitive land. The U.S. Department of Interior estimates that the cost of acquiring inholdings in national parks, wildlife refuges, national forests, and other public lands now totals over $10 billion. In addition, the federal government receives about $600 million in Land and Water Conservation Fund requests each year.

   The funding shortfall has been particularly difficult for State and local governments. For the last several years, Congress has provided no funding for the stateside grants portion of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, or to The Urban Parks and Recreation Recovery Act, a separate program that provides for rehabilitation of recreation facilities and improved recreation programs in our nation's cities.

   Last month President Clinton proposed the Lands Legacy Initiative , which would provide $1 billion from the Land and Water Conservation Fund in fiscal year 2000. The President's initiative would expand our nation's public lands , provide grants to states for land acquisition, promote open space and ``smart growth,'' improve wildlife habitat, and protect farmland from development. The Lands Legacy Initiative is a good first step, but our commitment to public lands should not be a one-year deal.

   Therefore, I am pleased that other Senators have introduced bills that would provide permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the Urban Parks and Recreation Recovery Act, as well as a number of other programs. I support Senator BOXER's bill, the Permanent Protection for America's Resources Act, and I look forward to working with her and with all Senators interested in public lands , coastal restoration, and wildlife protection.

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