‘Rosa Parks Law’ Expunges Protestor Records
Nearly 50 years after the Civil Rights Movement swept the American South and changed the Nation’s take on race and equality forever, a new Tennessee law is allowing those who protested Southern segregation to expunge charges incurred while protesting, from their legal records. The law, which was signed by Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen on June 8, 2007, expunges the records of “persons charged with a misdemeanor or felony while challenging a law designed to maintain racial segregation.” It can also be applied to deceased persons on the petition of parties with legal authority to act on the decedent’s behalf.
The Rosa Parks Law wipes clean the records of otherwise law-abiding citizens forced to live for decades with the taint of a felony or misdemeanor earned while protesting segregation laws. However, while it is cheered as a step in the right direction for its recognition of civil rights protestors, it has been slammed by critics as a publicity-seeking move that does little to redress the actual consequences of prior felony and misdemeanor convictions. Critics state that the law is too little, too late. For example, convicted felons have already lived through decades with limited employment opportunities, a loss that has had a significant financial impact on the protestors and their families. Others believe that the law is too broad, since some activists participated in violent action while protesting segregation laws and may have “earned” their convictions.
Tennessee’s Rosa Parks Law follows similar legislation in Alabama. However, in Alabama, expunged records are sent to a state archive for educational use, while the Tennessee law calls for the destruction of felony and misdemeanor records associated with a living person. A similar bill failed to gain support in the Florida legislature this year.
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