Rosa Parks accepted the invitation to visit Utah in 1992 as an honorable guest of the Salt Lake Branch of the NAACP. At that time I was serving as a legislator in the Utah State House of Representatives. As a member of the Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights Commission and friend of the NAACP, I was contacted on behalf of Mrs. Parks to request from the speaker of the House, then Rep. Craig Moody, permission for her to be introduced at the state Capitol on Human Rights Day, now Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and to say a few words to Utah's lawmakers. This request was not uncommon, but routine and customary for other notable guests, politicos, school choirs, dairy princesses, etc.
Unfortunately, I was flatly told, "No, we don't have time." This negative response, without due consideration or respect for the matriarch of the civil rights movement, was shameful and a disgrace for the state of Utah.
On this day of her funeral services in Detroit, with worldwide attention and acclaim for having been the first woman to lie in state at the nation's Capitol in Washington, D.C., I wonder if the person responsible for turning her away because there was, "no room at the inn," or the Utah state Capitol, feels any sense of shame or remorse?
Thankfully, a more humble leader and statesman, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., has requested all flags in the state of Utah be lowered to half-staff in her immortal honor and memory.
Joanne R. Milner
Salt Lake City