As part of Black History month, Rosa Parks Day officially established in Massachusetts

Protesters marched past the Rosa Parks statue in Montgomery, Ala., on Wednesday June 3, 2020, during a protest over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died while in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.Mickey Welsh/Associated Press

As part of Black History month, Massachusetts has become the ninth state to honor civil rights icon Rosa Parks with a day in her honor.

Governor Maura Healey earlier this month designated Feb. 4 as Rosa Parks Day in Massachusetts. “70 years ago, Rosa Parks took a stand for racial justice by sitting down on a public bus, becoming the ‘Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,’” Healey said this month on X. “On what would have been her 112th birthday, I’m proud to proclaim today the first official Rosa Parks Day in Massachusetts.”

The bill establishing the annual proclamation, sponsored by state Democratic Representatives Michael Kushmerek of Worcester and Kipp Diggs of Barnstable , passed the House and Senate on Dec. 30 and was signed into law by Healey on Jan. 8.

Rev. Wil Darcangelo, minister of The First Church of Christ, Unitarian in Lancaster, spearheaded the effort — his third attempt since 2018, according to a statement.

Massachusetts is the ninth state to honor Parks’ legacy with an annual observance, but one of only three to do so on Feb. 4. Darcangelo said he chose the date because it not only marks her birthday, but also falls within Black History Month, according to his statement.

Parks was born on Feb. 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Ala. Her decision on Dec. 1, 1955, not to give up her seat in a section reserved for white passengers sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a watershed moment in the nation’s civil rights movement.

Rosa Parks decals were displayed on MBTA buses in 2019.Jonathan Wiggs

The choice carries extra weight amid rising tensions over diversity and inclusion, including President Trump’s recent attacks on DEI and the Defense Department’s suspension of several special observances, including Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Pride Month, and Holocaust Days of Remembrance.

In an interview, Darcangelo said while these orders may seem overwhelming now, diversity has always endured and will continue to do so in the long run.

“While we wait for this better future to come, we must tend to those who are harmed in the attempt at preventing it,” he said via email. “Commemorations like Rosa Parks Day are single steps in that steadily forward path.”

California and Missouri celebrate Parks’ birthday, while Michigan observes it on the first Monday after her birthday. Alabama, Ohio, Oregon, and Tennessee celebrate Parks on Dec. 1, the date of her arrest in 1955.

Darcangelo hopes Massachusetts’ annual commemoration will inspire hope and resistance, following the courageous example of Parks and other civil rights leaders who “resolutely sat and commanded their rightful place in the world and refused to budge.”

“I hope these observances empower [people] with that courage as well,” he said.