BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Library of Congress -- Exhibit: Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words

DC -- Library of Congress -- Exhibit: Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Description of Pictures: Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words
Opening December 5, 2019
Rosa Parks (1913–2005) is best known for her refusal to give up her seat to a white man on a crowded bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955. Her arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a pivotal event in the civil rights movement that ultimately led to the dismantling of Jim Crow segregation. Rosa Parks became an icon of the movement, celebrated for this single courageous act of civil disobedience, but she is often characterized by misconceptions. Contrary to popular belief, Parks was not a demure seamstress who chose not to stand because she was physically tired. Her calm demeanor hid a militant spirit forged over decades.
The real Rosa Parks was a seasoned activist who organized to free the Scottsboro Boys in the 1930s and helped operate the offices of the NAACP and Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in Montgomery during the 1940s and 1950s. She was punished for the bus incident with death threats, unemployment, and dire poverty, yet was sustained through years of hardship by her strong Christian faith. Parks remained committed to the struggle for social justice and human rights until her death, inspiring millions of people around the world.
Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words showcases rarely seen materials that offer an intimate view of Rosa Parks and documents her life and activism—creating a rich opportunity for viewers to discover new dimensions to their understanding of this seminal figure. The materials are drawn extensively from the Rosa Parks Collection, a gift to the Library of Congress from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.

Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider.
IP Address: 18.224.63.87 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.

Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]

Share: Facebook Twitter Digg
[1] LCPARK_191205_001.JPG	[2] LCPARK_191205_006.JPG	[3] LCPARK_191205_010.JPG
[4] LCPARK_191205_013.JPG	[5] LCPARK_191205_015.JPG	[6] LCPARK_191205_018.JPG
[7] LCPARK_191205_021.JPG	[8] LCPARK_191205_022.JPG	[9] LCPARK_191205_024.JPG
[10] LCPARK_191205_029.JPG	[11] LCPARK_191205_031.JPG	[12] LCPARK_191205_036.JPG
[13] LCPARK_191205_037.JPG	[14] LCPARK_191205_043.JPG	[15] LCPARK_191205_045.JPG
[16] LCPARK_191205_050.JPG	[17] LCPARK_191205_055.JPG	[18] LCPARK_191205_063.JPG
[19] LCPARK_191205_066.JPG	[20] LCPARK_191205_070.JPG	[21] LCPARK_191205_074.JPG
[22] LCPARK_191205_076.JPG	[23] LCPARK_191205_078.JPG	[24] LCPARK_191205_084.JPG
[25] LCPARK_191205_089.JPG	[26] LCPARK_191205_094.JPG	[27] LCPARK_191205_097.JPG
[28] LCPARK_191205_099.JPG	[29] LCPARK_191205_103.JPG	[30] LCPARK_191205_107.JPG
[31] LCPARK_191205_110.JPG	[32] LCPARK_191205_113.JPG	[33] LCPARK_191205_116.JPG
[34] LCPARK_191205_119.JPG	[35] LCPARK_191205_123.JPG	[36] LCPARK_191205_127.JPG
[37] LCPARK_191205_132.JPG	[38] LCPARK_191205_135.JPG	[39] LCPARK_191205_140.JPG
[40] LCPARK_191205_142.JPG	[41] LCPARK_191205_146.JPG	[42] LCPARK_191205_148.JPG
[43] LCPARK_191205_154.JPG	[44] LCPARK_191205_156.JPG	[45] LCPARK_191205_161.JPG
[46] LCPARK_191205_164.JPG	[47] LCPARK_191205_168.JPG	[48] LCPARK_191205_170.JPG
[49] LCPARK_191205_174.JPG	[50] LCPARK_191205_176.JPG	[51] LCPARK_191205_179.JPG
[52] LCPARK_191205_183.JPG	[53] LCPARK_191205_185.JPG	[54] LCPARK_191205_188.JPG
[55] LCPARK_191205_190.JPG	[56] LCPARK_191205_192.JPG	[57] LCPARK_191205_197.JPG
[58] LCPARK_191205_199.JPG	[59] LCPARK_191205_202.JPG	[60] LCPARK_191205_204.JPG
[61] LCPARK_191205_209.JPG	[62] LCPARK_191205_215.JPG	[63] LCPARK_191205_216.JPG
[64] LCPARK_191205_221.JPG	[65] LCPARK_191205_226.JPG	[66] LCPARK_191205_231.JPG
[67] LCPARK_191205_237.JPG	[68] LCPARK_191205_241.JPG	[69] LCPARK_191205_244.JPG
[70] LCPARK_191205_249.JPG	[71] LCPARK_191205_250.JPG	[72] LCPARK_191205_252.JPG
[73] LCPARK_191205_255.JPG	[74] LCPARK_191205_257.JPG	[75] LCPARK_191205_261.JPG
[76] LCPARK_191205_263.JPG	[77] LCPARK_191205_264.JPG	[78] LCPARK_191205_266.JPG
[79] LCPARK_191205_269.JPG	[80] LCPARK_191205_270.JPG	[81] LCPARK_191205_273.JPG
[82] LCPARK_191205_276.JPG	[83] LCPARK_191205_280.JPG	[84] LCPARK_191205_282.JPG
[85] LCPARK_191205_285.JPG	[86] LCPARK_191205_287.JPG	[87] LCPARK_191205_291.JPG
[88] LCPARK_191205_293.JPG	[89] LCPARK_191205_297.JPG	[90] LCPARK_191205_301.JPG
[91] LCPARK_191205_303.JPG	[92] LCPARK_191205_306.JPG	[93] LCPARK_191205_309.JPG
[94] LCPARK_191205_312.JPG	[95] LCPARK_191205_315.JPG	[96] LCPARK_191205_318.JPG
[97] LCPARK_191205_322.JPG	[98] LCPARK_191205_326.JPG	[99] LCPARK_191205_329.JPG
[100] LCPARK_191205_334.JPG	[101] LCPARK_191205_337.JPG	[102] LCPARK_191205_338.JPG
[103] LCPARK_191205_343.JPG	[104] LCPARK_191205_348.JPG	[105] LCPARK_191205_351.JPG
[106] LCPARK_191205_353.JPG	[107] LCPARK_191205_354.JPG	[108] LCPARK_191205_358.JPG
[109] LCPARK_191205_362.JPG	[110] LCPARK_191205_365.JPG	[111] LCPARK_191205_367.JPG
[112] LCPARK_191205_369.JPG	[113] LCPARK_191205_373.JPG	[114] LCPARK_191205_377.JPG
[115] LCPARK_191205_379.JPG	[116] LCPARK_191205_382.JPG	[117] LCPARK_191205_388.JPG
[118] LCPARK_191205_389.JPG	[119] LCPARK_191205_391.JPG	[120] LCPARK_191205_394.JPG
[121] LCPARK_191205_397.JPG	[122] LCPARK_191205_400.JPG	[123] LCPARK_191205_403.JPG
[124] LCPARK_191205_406.JPG	[125] LCPARK_191205_413.JPG	[126] LCPARK_191205_417.JPG
[127] LCPARK_191205_420.JPG	[128] LCPARK_191205_422.JPG	[129] LCPARK_191205_424.JPG
[130] LCPARK_191205_425.JPG	[131] LCPARK_191205_429.JPG	[132] LCPARK_191205_432.JPG
[133] LCPARK_191205_435.JPG	[134] LCPARK_191205_438.JPG	[135] LCPARK_191205_442.JPG
[136] LCPARK_191205_445.JPG	[137] LCPARK_191205_447.JPG	[138] LCPARK_191205_449.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. LCPARK_191205_010.JPG: Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words Rosa Parks (1913–2005) is best known for her refusal to give up her seat to a white man on a crowded bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955. Her arrest sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a pivotal event in the civil rights movement that ultimately led to the dismantling of Jim Crow segregation. Rosa Parks became an icon of the movement, celebrated for this single courageous act of civil disobedience, but she is often characterized by misconceptions. Contrary to popular belief, Parks was not a demure seamstress who chose not to stand because she was physically tired. Her calm demeanor hid a militant spirit forged over decades. The real Rosa Parks was a seasoned activist who organized to free the Scottsboro Boys in the 1930s and helped operate the offices of the NAACP and Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in Montgomery during the 1940s and 1950s. She was punished for the bus incident with death threats, unemployment, and dire poverty, yet was sustained through years of hardship by her strong Christian faith. Parks remained committed to the struggle for social justice and human rights until her death, inspiring millions of people around the world. Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words showcases rarely seen materials that offer an intimate view of Rosa Parks and documents her life and activism -- creating a rich opportunity for viewers to discover new dimensions to their understanding of this seminal figure. The materials are drawn extensively from the Rosa Parks Collection, a gift to the Library of Congress from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.
2. LCPARK_191205_015.JPG: "I want to be remembered as a person who stood up to injustice, ... and most of all, I want to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free and wanted others to be free."
3. LCPARK_191205_024.JPG: Early Life and Activism Rosa Louise McCauley was born and reared in Alabama during the Jim Crow era, when state laws mandated the separation of the races in practically all aspects of everyday life and disenfranchised black voters. The Ku Klux Klan, often complicit with local governments, engaged in frequent lynchings, beatings, and burnings to enforce the racial order. Rosa was determined "never to accept [Jim Crow], even if it must be endured." In 1932 she married Raymond Parks, a barber and charter member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) branch, in Montgomery, Alabama. Rosa and Raymond had similar personalities and shared an interest in racial politics. They were early activists in the celebrated Scottsboro case and the Voters League in Montgomery. In 1943, she became the secretary of the Montgomery NAACP and, in 1949, its youth adviser. Under the leadership of Rosa Parks and E. D. Nixon the branch focused on voter registration and cases of racial discrimination and violence.
4. LCPARK_191205_029.JPG: Grandfather, Anderson McCauley Anderson McCauley was born in Georgia, the son of Ghiogee, a Creek Indian, and Charles McCauley, a soldier of Irish and Cherokee descent. Around 1884 he moved to Abbeville, Alabama, and ultimately acquired more than 500 acres. Anderson and his wife Louisa became parents of seventeen children. He worked with his sons building houses across Alabama's Black Belt region.
5. LCPARK_191205_031.JPG: The Birth of Rosa McCauley Shortly after their marriage James and Leona McCauley moved to Tuskegee, Alabama. James found work in Macon County building houses. Leona had to leave her teaching job when she became pregnant. On February 4, 1913, she gave birth to a daughter Rosa Louise, named for her grandmothers. Leona wanted James to teach at Tuskegee Institute, but preferring the more lucrative contracting work, he decided to return to the McCauley farm in Abbeville.
6. LCPARK_191205_036.JPG: Rosa's Father, James McCauley James McCauley was born in Abbeville, Alabama, the eldest son of Anderson and Louisa McCauley. He became a skilled carpenter and stonemason like his father. James met schoolteacher Leona Edwards while visiting his sister Addie in Pine Level, Alabama. They married on April 12, 1912, at Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in Pine Level.
7. LCPARK_191205_037.JPG: Grandmother, Louisa Collins Louisa Collins was born in Georgia, the daughter of a mixed-race slave. She married Anderson McCauley, another mixed-race Georgian. Ten of their seventeen children survived to adulthood. All ten were literate. The eldest was Addie (b. 1884) and the youngest was George Gaines McCauley (b. 1904). Rosa lived with her grandparents as a toddler.
8. LCPARK_191205_043.JPG: Father Apologized to Rosa for Desertion In 1915 James McCauley moved North seeking work. He visited Pine Level, Alabama, when Rosa was five. Thereafter he traveled from state to state designing and building various structures. Rosa did not see him again until after her marriage. James wrote this letter to apologize for his "desertion of a good wife and two of the sweetest children [that] ever lived." He ultimately reconciled with his children and grandchildren.
9. LCPARK_191205_050.JPG: The Family Bible This Bible register partially charts Rosa's maternal lineage. Accordingly, her great grandfather James Percival, an indentured servant of Scots-Irish descent, married Mary Jane Nobles, an enslaved African. Their daughter Rose married Sylvester Edwards, the son of white planter John Edwards and his enslaved housekeeper and seamstress. They had three daughters: Fannie, Bessie, and Leona Edwards, Rosa's mother.
10. LCPARK_191205_055.JPG: Rosa's Mother, Leona Edwards Leona Edwards was born in Pine Level, Alabama, the youngest of Sylvester and Rose Edwards's three daughters. She attended Payne University in Selma but did not earn a degree. Leona became a dedicated rural school teacher, and her meager salary was the main source of the family's income. She instilled in Rosa the importance of faith, self-respect, and education -- values reinforced by her grandparents and the teachers at Miss White's School, a school that Rosa would attend at age eleven.
11. LCPARK_191205_063.JPG: Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church Rosa's family life revolved around Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in Pine Level, Alabama, where her father's brother-in-law Reverend Julius I. Dominick was the pastor. Sunday church service was followed by daily prayers and devotional readings from the Bible. She developed a strong faith that undergirded her activism and assured triumph over adversity, which prepared her for the trials ahead.
12. LCPARK_191205_066.JPG: Early Childhood Experiences In this autobiographical sketch Rosa Parks recounts growing up in Pine Level, Alabama, on the farm of her maternal grandparents, Sylvester and Rose Edwards, with her mother and brother, Leona and Sylvester McCauley. She describes "keeping vigil" with her grandfather to protect their home from Klansmen, doing chores, and learning to cook and sew.
13. LCPARK_191205_070.JPG: Rosa's Brother, Sylvester James McCauley Sylvester James McCauley, Rosa's only sibling, was born on August 20, 1915, in Pine Level, Alabama. When their mother became seriously ill, Sylvester left school to help support the family. During World War II he served in the Army in the European and the Pacific theaters. While on leave he met his wife, Daisy, at a restaurant in South Carolina. After the war they moved to Detroit and reared thirteen children. Sylvester worked for the Chrysler Motor Company and did carpentry jobs on the side.
14. LCPARK_191205_076.JPG: It it worth while to reveal the intimacies of the past life? Would the people be sympathetic or disillusioned when the facts of my life are told?
15. LCPARK_191205_078.JPG: Childhood Encounter Sylvester Edwards, a supporter of the fiery Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey, taught his granddaughter Rosa "never to accept mistreatment." In this autobiographical sketch Rosa describes a childhood encounter with a white boy named Franklin who threatened to hit her. She picked up a brick and dared him to try, revealing the feistiness that would incite her famous 1955 bus stand. Franklin retreated.
16. LCPARK_191205_084.JPG: Letter from a Classmate Rosa Parks was already reading when she began school in Pine Level, Alabama. Moving to Montgomery at age eleven, she attended Miss White's Montgomery Industrial School for Girls and, later, high school at Alabama State Teachers College. In this letter Galatas, a former classmate who moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, praises Rosa for being "very smart," discusses mutual friends, and teases her about boys.
17. LCPARK_191205_089.JPG: Rosa's Education Miss White's Montgomery Industrial School for Girls required its students to wear uniforms and forbade make-up, jewelry, movies, and dancing. Rosa completed ninth grade at Booker T. Washington Junior High in Montgomery and the tenth and eleventh grades at Alabama State Teachers College without these restrictions. She left school before graduation to care for her ailing grandmother. She is shown here as a teenager with a friend.
18. LCPARK_191205_097.JPG: Living in the deep south where Legally enforced racial segregation in all areas of life was life walking a tight rope across a bottomless pit.
19. LCPARK_191205_099.JPG: Family Affairs In 1948 Rosa considered moving to Detroit. In this letter she writes about her job search, visiting her brother and cousins, and contacting the local NAACP. In 1949 she restarted the Montgomery NAACP Youth Council. She trained the young people to challenge segregation in the public library and organized spelling bees. She was busy preparing a major youth conference the week of her arrest.
20. LCPARK_191205_110.JPG: Rosa Joins the NAACP's Montgomery Branch In 1943 Rosa Parks joined the Montgomery NAACP and became its secretary, reuniting with her former classmate Johnnie Carr. With E. D. Nixon, she investigated cases involving police brutality, rape, murder, and discrimination. In 1946 the Montgomery NAACP defended the paroled Scottsboro Boy Andy Wright and found him employment. That same year, Parks attended a leadership training program run by Ella Baker. In 1947 E. D. Nixon was elected Alabama state president of the NAACP, and Parks became the first state secretary in 1948.
21. LCPARK_191205_113.JPG: During the Montgomery bus boycott, we came together and remained unified for 381 days. It has never been done again. The Montgomery boycott became the model for human rights throughout the world.
22. LCPARK_191205_116.JPG: Seamstress With husband Raymond's support, Rosa earned her high school diploma in 1933. At the time, few blacks in Montgomery had a high school education, but Rosa still struggled to find a suitable job. She took in sewing work at home on the side and worked as an insurance agent, office clerk, domestic, and nurse's aide to supplement Raymond's income.
23. LCPARK_191205_119.JPG: Activist E. D. Nixon E. D. Nixon (1899–1987) was born in Lowndes County, Alabama, the son of Wesley Nixon, a Baptist preacher, and Sue Chapell Nixon, a maid. He had little formal education. He worked as a Pullman porter from 1923 to 1964 and was mentored by union leader A. Philip Randolph. Nixon founded the Montgomery Division of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1938. During the 1940s he organized the Alabama Voters League and served as president of the NAACP Montgomery branch and its state conference. In 1954 Nixon became the first black man to run for public office in Montgomery since Reconstruction. The following year he helped lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
24. LCPARK_191205_123.JPG: E. D. Nixon's Office Manager In the 1940s and 1950s Rosa Parks managed the office of E. D. Nixon, director of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters' Montgomery Division and president of the Montgomery NAACP. The work brought her into contact with a community of union organizers and others that championed progressive causes. She became a staunch supporter of the labor movement.
25. LCPARK_191205_127.JPG: Terrifying Incident During the Depression Rosa Parks worked as a housekeeper for a young white couple with an infant. In this first-person account she describes how she was nearly raped by a white neighbor of her employers in the spring of 1931. She recalls the abuse of her enslaved great grandmother and the trial of the Scottsboro Boys in comparison. The incident may have been a catalyst for her later work investigating interracial rape cases.
26. LCPARK_191205_135.JPG: Husband, Raymond Parks Raymond Parks was born in Wedowee, Alabama, the son of David, a carpenter, and Geri Culbertson Parks. He spent his childhood caring for ill family members and was orphaned as a teen. A mutual friend introduced Raymond to Rosa in the spring of 1931. He proposed on their second date. She "thought he was too white," but was impressed with his character and defiant attitude. They married on December 18, 1932, in Pine Level and remained a devoted couple until his death in 1977.
27. LCPARK_191205_140.JPG: Raymond Parks's Barber's License Raymond Parks did not receive a formal education as there was no nearby black school to attend. He taught himself to read with the help of his mother Geri. An avid reader, he cultivated a thorough knowledge of current events and an appreciation for poetry. He held several jobs before moving to Tuskegee, where he learned barbering. He was working at the Atlas Barber & Beauty Shop in downtown Montgomery and was active in the Scottsboro Boys' defense when he met Rosa in 1931.
28. LCPARK_191205_142.JPG: Scottsboro Boys On March 25, 1931, nine black youths were falsely accused of raping two white women on a freight train in Scottsboro, Alabama. Raymond Parks brought them food in jail and met secretly with other black activists to raise money for their defense. Eight of the nine youths were convicted and sentenced to death within a month. In this letter Dr. P. A. Stephens, a black physician and president of the Methodist Episcopal Church Layman's Association, asks the NAACP for assistance.
29. LCPARK_191205_148.JPG: Highlander Folk School White civil rights advocate Virginia Durr arranged a scholarship for Rosa to attend the August 1955 desegregation workshop at the Highlander Folk School, an interracial training center for labor and civil rights activists in Appalachian Tennessee. She procured Rosa's round-trip bus ticket from liberal southern publisher Aubrey Williams. Septima Clark, a South Carolina activist-educator, led the two-week workshop and mentored Rosa. Clark founded Highlander's Citizenship Schools program, which taught thousands of southern blacks literacy and voting rights.
30. LCPARK_191205_154.JPG: Emmett Till with His Mother Emmett Till, age fourteen, was brutally murdered on August 28, 1955, for allegedly whistling at a white woman in Money, Mississippi. An all-white jury acquitted his killers in September. The verdict aroused international protest. On November 27, 1955, Rosa Parks attended a rally at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church to hear Mississippi activist Dr. T. R. M. Howard speak about Till. Years later, Jesse Jackson asked her why she refused to move to the back of bus. She replied, "I thought of Emmett Till and I couldn't go back."
31. LCPARK_191205_156.JPG: Rosa Parks Arrested On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for disorderly conduct for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. Civil Rights leader E. D. Nixon bailed her out of jail, joined by white friends Clifford Durr, an attorney, and his wife, Virginia. Rosa did not win her case, which went to trial in the Recorder's Court of the city of Montgomery on December 5. She was fined $14.00, including court costs. Her attorney Fred Gray appealed, but lost on a technicality.
32. LCPARK_191205_161.JPG: Recollections of the Bus Boycott Aubrey Williams, publisher of the Southern Farmer and a boycott supporter, interviewed E. D. Nixon for an article in his newspaper. Williams probably paid Rosa for editing the transcript to help her financially. In this excerpt Nixon recounts the support of local black ministers for the bus boycott; the selection of Martin Luther King, Jr., as president of MIA; and a white man's firing of the seventy-two year old black maid his family employed for forty-eight years in retaliation for her participation in the boycott.
33. LCPARK_191205_168.JPG: Incarceration at the Montgomery City Jail The Rosa Parks Papers include autobiographical writings, notebooks, notes, and interviews documenting Parks's defiant stand and the drama of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Rosa Parks begins these notes by describing her arrest by two white policemen. She recounts the emotional pain she felt during her brief incarceration at the Montgomery city jail. Finally, she considers the broader impact "of what the criminal Jim Crow had done to one life multiplied millions of times over these United States and the world."
34. LCPARK_191205_179.JPG: Montgomery Fair Department Store In this letter Rosa Parks describes a routine workday at Montgomery Fair department store to illustrate the daily indignities and humiliations blacks in the Jim Crow South endured. The newspapers, city bus lines, stores, libraries, schools, and churches evince segregation as "a complete and solid pattern." In conclusion, she elegizes "the lynch-murder of young Emmett Till of Chicago. This case could be multiplied many times in the South. . . ."
35. LCPARK_191205_183.JPG: Browder v. Gayle, Class Action Lawsuit On December 13, 1955, NAACP state field secretary W. C. Patton met with Montgomery branch president Robert L. Matthews, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Fred Gray to discuss the bus boycott. Rosa authorized the NAACP to process her case. Gray, the Montgomery Improvement Association's chief counsel, agreed to represent her, with Thurgood Marshall, Robert L. Carter, and Clifford Durr advising. On February 1, 1956, Gray filed a federal lawsuit, Browder v. Gayle, on behalf of five female plaintiffs: Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, Jeanetta Reese, Claudette Colvin, and Mary Louise Smith. He omitted Rosa due to a technicality.
36. LCPARK_191205_197.JPG: Carpool Notebook The MIA created an efficient carpool system to replace the buses. At one time 325 private cars gave free rides. City churches provided twenty-two station wagons that operated hourly with drivers furnished by the churches. There were forty-three dispatch stations and forty-two pick-up stations, and scheduled service from 5:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. About 30,000 people were transported daily to and from work. Rosa Parks wrote the contact information for some of the drivers in this notebook.
37. LCPARK_191205_209.JPG: The Bus Boycott The Bus Boycott "During the Montgomery bus boycott, we came together and remained unified for 381 days. It has never been done again. The Montgomery boycott became the model for human rights throughout the world." When Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955, for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man, she was mentally prepared for the moment. Earlier that summer, she attended a workshop on implementing integration at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee. Also at that time, the Montgomery NAACP had been looking for a test case to challenge the constitutionality of Alabama state bus segregation laws. To coincide with her trial on December 5, 1955, the Women's Political Council initiated a one-day citywide bus boycott. That evening, E. D. Nixon and other black leaders called a mass meeting at Holt Street Baptist Church and voted to extend the bus boycott under the direction of the newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). Rosa, discharged from Montgomery Fair department store, began setting up rides and garnering public support for the boycott and the NAACP. For three hundred and eighty-one days, African American citizens of Montgomery walked, carpooled, and took taxis rather than city buses. They endured bad weather, harassment, intimidation, and the loss of their jobs. On February 1, 1956, the MIA filed a lawsuit, Browder v. Gayle, in federal district court challenging the constitutionality of bus segregation ordinances. On November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling that bus segregation violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, which led to the successful end of the bus boycott on December 20, 1956.
38. LCPARK_191205_215.JPG: "Our non-violent protest has proven to all that no intelligent right thinking person is satisfied with less than human rights that are enjoyed by all people."
39. LCPARK_191205_221.JPG: Rosa's Self-Designed Dress Rosa Parks received her first sewing lessons from her mother and maternal grandmother, who made quilts. The Montgomery Industrial School for Girls provided formal training. She was employed as a tailor's assistant and a seamstress. She also sewed at home for private clients, family members, and herself.
40. LCPARK_191205_226.JPG: Alabama Anti-Boycott Act On February 21, 1956, a Montgomery grand jury indicted Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., E. D. Nixon, and eighty-six other bus boycott participants for violating the Alabama Anti-Boycott Act of 1921. King was the first to be brought to trial. He was convicted on March 22, but Judge Eugene Carter suspended his $500 fine pending appeal. The other cases were ultimately dismissed.
41. LCPARK_191205_231.JPG: 1955 Income Tax Return On this 1955 Income Tax Return form Raymond and Rosa Parks reported their gross income as $3,749. 94. The couple's income was well below the U.S. median income of around $5,000. On January 7, 1956, Rosa was discharged from the Montgomery Fair department store, where she had worked as a tailor's assistant in men's alterations since September 1954. Raymond was forced to resign his job as a barber at Maxwell Air Force Base.
42. LCPARK_191205_237.JPG: Rosa's Chronology of the Bus Boycott Rosa Parks jotted down this chronology of the bus boycott and its immediate aftermath in the course of reading Martin King, Jr.'s, book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (1958). She included King's arrival in Montgomery, her arrest and trial, the subsequent array of legal actions, and the bombings of homes and churches.
43. LCPARK_191205_244.JPG: Rosa Travels on Behalf of the Bus Boycott In 1956 Rosa Parks traveled across the U.S. making appearances on behalf of the bus boycott and the NAACP. In the spring she flew to Detroit, Seattle, Los Angeles, Oakland, Chicago, and Indianapolis, before spending two weeks in New York. There she met Roy Wilkins and Thurgood Marshall, toured Harlem with Ella Baker, and addressed the "Heroes of the South" fundraiser rally at Madison Square Garden. Eleanor Roosevelt, A. Philip Randolph, E. D. Nixon, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Pearl Bailey also participated in the rally. Rosa writes to her mother in this letter about her travels.
44. LCPARK_191205_249.JPG: Speaking Tour In November 1956 Rosa Parks embarked on a speaking tour sponsored by NAACP branches in the Northeast to assist with their fall Freedom Fund and membership campaigns. On November 13, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal district court's ruling in Browder v. Gayle that segregated bus seating was unconstitutional. Rosa was en route to Albany, New York, preparing to speak. She noted her reaction to news on the back of this program to update her remarks.
45. LCPARK_191205_252.JPG: NAACP v. Alabama (1958) After the Brown decision, several Southern states initiated lawsuits to ban the NAACP's statewide effort to advance desegregation. On June 1, 1956, Alabama attorney general John W. Patterson sued the NAACP for violation of a state law requiring out-of-state corporations to register. A state judge ordered the NAACP to suspend operations and submit branch records, including membership lists, or incur a $100,000 fine. In NAACP v. Alabama (1958) a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that the NAACP had the right, by freedom of association, not to disclose its membership lists. After several appeals, the NAACP was finally able to resume operations in Alabama in 1964. Fred Gray was the local NAACP counsel.
46. LCPARK_191205_257.JPG: Departure from Montgomery Beleaguered by constant death threats and notoriety that made finding employment difficult, in August 1957 Rosa, Raymond, and Leona left Montgomery for Detroit. Thomas Williamson, a cousin, wired $300.00 and the Montgomery Improvement Association collected $800.00 to help cover their moving expenses. They stayed with extended family before moving to a small apartment Rosa's brother, Sylvester, found for them on Euclid Avenue in southwest Detroit.
47. LCPARK_191205_261.JPG: Rosa's Nieces and Nephews In 1946 Sylvester and Daisy McCauley moved to Detroit. They purchased a house in the southwest section near River Rouge. Sylvester planted a garden to feed his large family. On Sundays Rosa helped cook dinner using vegetables and fruits from the garden. She doted on her thirteen nieces and nephews and became a surrogate mother to them after their parents' deaths.
48. LCPARK_191205_263.JPG: Working at Virginia's Hampton Institute In October 1957, Rosa moved alone to Virginia's Hampton Institute to work as hostess of the Holly Tree Inn -- the residence and guest house on the campus. She had hoped to obtain an apartment in Holly Tree Annex so that Raymond and Leona could join her. Because this did not happen, she decided to return to Detroit at the end of the fall semester in 1958. This is one of the letters she sent to Raymond during the months they lived apart.
49. LCPARK_191205_266.JPG: Reversal of Income This 1959 income tax return form shows the acute financial reversal the Parkses incurred after Rosa's arrest. They reported an annual income of only $661.00. From 1959 through 1964, Rosa worked as a seamstress at the Stockton Sewing Company. She sewed aprons and skirts for seventy-five cents apiece. Raymond was unemployed from January to August 1959. In October they moved into the Progressive Civic League as the building's caretakers to reduce expenses.
50. LCPARK_191205_269.JPG: "The Troubles of the Boycott Heroine" In July 1960 Jet magazine reported on "the troubles of the boycott heroine." Rosa Parks was ill, in debt, and unable to afford health care. Lasker Smith, president of the NAACP River Rouge-Ecorse, Michigan branch, appealed to the NAACP national office for help. The NAACP River Rouge-Ecorse branch, largely composed of UAW Local 600 members, had supported Rosa during the bus boycott.
51. LCPARK_191205_276.JPG: March on Washington The Southern Christian Leadership Conference invited Rosa Parks to participate in the 1963 March on Washington. Shortly after arriving, Rosa discovered that she and other female civil rights leaders would march in a separate procession and no woman would appear as a speaker. They protested the exclusion. At the last minute, A. Philip Randolph added a "Tribute to Women." Daisy Bates briefly spoke during the official program, and Rosa was recognized.
52. LCPARK_191205_280.JPG: The Detroit Friends of SNCC Rosa Parks's bus stand triggered a wave of student sit-ins across the South. In 1960 Ella Baker helped the students organize the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to direct the movement. Rosa helped run the Detroit Friends of SNCC. She supported the 1964 Freedom Summer Project, a major voter registration campaign in Mississippi. In 1966 she joined Stokely Carmichael and other SNCC workers in Alabama to support the formation of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization or Black Panther Party.
53. LCPARK_191205_282.JPG: The Women's Public Affairs Committee of 1000 Rosa Parks became a close friend of Louise Tappes, owner of Detroit's House of Beauty Hair Salon and wife of United Automobile Workers leader Shelton Tappes. In 1964 Rosa joined the Women's Public Affairs Committee of 1000 (WPAC), the activist social group Tappes cofounded. On April 3, 1965, the WPAC sponsored a fund raiser testimonial dinner for Rosa at Cobo Hall attended by local and national church, community, and labor leaders. Coretta Scott King and Ralph Abernathy were guest speakers.
54. LCPARK_191205_287.JPG: Staffer of Congressman John Conyers Jr. (D-MI) Congressman John Conyers, Jr., (D-MI), often joked that more people came to see Rosa Parks in his Detroit office than came to see him. After joining the office's staff, Rosa continued to pursue her civil rights work and traveled around making appearances, attending events, and accepting honors and awards. Congressman Conyers supported these activities. He later remarked, "Having Parks on my staff was the greatest honor of my entire career."
55. LCPARK_191205_291.JPG: Parks Picketing in front of General Motors In 1964 Rosa Parks volunteered on John Conyers' campaign to represent Michigan's First Congressional District. After he won, he hired Rosa in March 1965 to work in his Detroit office as a receptionist and administrative assistant. She answered phones, met with visitors, handled constituent cases, and assisted the Congressman with scheduling. The position restored the Parkses' financial stability. She retired in 1988.
56. LCPARK_191205_293.JPG: The Jeremiah Reeves Case In 1952 sixteen-year-old Jeremiah Reeves, a talented drummer and grocery delivery boy, was having a consensual relationship with a white female customer on his route. When the affair was discovered she cried rape. He was convicted and sentenced to death. The Montgomery NAACP interceded. Rosa Parks corresponded with Reeves and helped get his poetry published. But despite the persistent efforts of the NAACP and Martin Luther King, Jr., Reeves was executed on March 28, 1958, at age twenty-two.
57. LCPARK_191205_297.JPG: Rosa in the A.M.E. Church Rosa Parks was a lifelong member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which had its roots in the antislavery movement. At Saint Matthew A.M.E. Church in Detroit she served as a stewardess and a deaconess, the highest position for a laywoman in the A.M.E. Church. She also helped print the church bulletins, which she habitually used to jot down sermon notes.
58. LCPARK_191205_301.JPG: Rosa Practicing Yoga Rosa Parks had an interest in Buddhism. In her senior years she took yoga classes and added Buddhist meditation to her prayers. She also became a vegetarian and consulted a naturopathic doctor to improve her health.
59. LCPARK_191205_306.JPG: Detroit 1957 and Beyond Detroit 1957 and Beyond "Our freedom is threatened every time one of our young people is killed by another child, . . . every time a person gets stopped and beaten by the police because of the color of their skin." In August 1957 Raymond and Rosa Parks and Rosa's mother, Leona McCauley, moved to Detroit, Michigan, where her younger brother, Sylvester, lived. By October, Rosa accepted a job offer as a hostess at the Holly Tree Inn on the campus of Hampton Institute in Virginia and finally returned to Detroit in December 1958. She remained active in the civil rights movement. Rosa participated in the Prayer Pilgrimage (1957), the March on Washington (1963), Mississippi Freedom Summer (1964), the Selma to Montgomery March (1965), and the Poor People's Campaign (1968). She also fought for women's rights and against the Vietnam War. Rosa continued to advocate for prisoners and supported the growing Black Power movement. She was employed by Congressman John Conyers from 1965 to 1988. Rosa supported Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns. In the mid-1980s, she participated in the anti-apartheid protests. Rosa was part of the welcoming party for Nelson Mandela when he visited the U.S. In 1987 she co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development with Elaine Steele to educate and direct youth.
60. LCPARK_191205_309.JPG: "Our freedom is threatened every time one of our young people is killed by another child, . . . every time a person gets stopped and beaten by the police because of the color of their skin."
61. LCPARK_191205_312.JPG: Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., Rosa Parks Series Shortly after the death of civil rights activist Rosa Parks in 2005, letterpress artist Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., began a print series featuring quotes by Parks, which highlight the power, humanity, and determination in her voice. Shown here are four prints from the series. Kennedy is known for his layering technique that creates shimmering composition of words, forms, and ideas. His use of font and color pulls Parks's words forward as moral lessons that are still relevant today.
62. LCPARK_191205_315.JPG: Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Rosa Parks was active in the Detroit branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom for many years. She was an early opponent of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. During the Vietnam War she participated in a variety of group antiwar mobilizations and programs. This issue of the Detroit Women for Peace newsletter features local appearances by Congressman John Conyers, Jr., (D-MI) and Ralph Abernathy.
63. LCPARK_191205_318.JPG: Supporting the Black Power Movement In October 1966 Stokely Carmichael delivered a major Black Power speech at Detroit's Central Congregational Church. He paused to pay tribute to Rosa Parks, calling her his "hero." Rosa reciprocally affirmed the Black Power movement, which evoked her grandfather's Garveyism. She attended the 1968 Black Power conference with Carmichael and other leading advocates. During the 1979–1980 school year she visited the Black Panthers' Oakland Community School, where a play was performed in her honor.
64. LCPARK_191205_322.JPG: The Wilmington 10 Defense Committee Reverend Benjamin Chavis attracted international attention in 1972 when he was falsely convicted with nine other civil rights activists of arson and conspiracy in Wilmington, North Carolina. Rosa Parks joined the Wilmington 10 Defense Committee in Detroit, one of several prisoner-defense committees she supported. In 1976 its honorary chairpersons included Rosa Parks, Congressman John Conyers, Jr., and Judge George W. Crockett.
65. LCPARK_191205_326.JPG: Southern Christian Leadership Conference Following the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, in January 1957 Martin Luther King, Jr., formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to sustain protest in the South. In 1963 SCLC inaugurated the Rosa Parks Freedom Award. Rosa worked with SCLC in Detroit and attended national events whenever possible. In 1968 she traveled to Washington, D.C., for the Poor People's Campaign, the last major demonstration organized by Martin Luther King, Jr. She was one of the speakers at a Lincoln Memorial rally.
66. LCPARK_191205_334.JPG: Brunch with Angela Davis Rosa Parks' circle of friends included civil rights attorney Leo Branton, Jr., who co-defended Angela Davis. He persuaded a predominantly white jury to acquit Davis in 1972. Sometime later, Rosa received this invitation to attend a "brunch with Angela" in Indian Village, an affluent East Detroit neighborhood. Davis was then co-chairperson of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, an offshoot of the mass movement to free her, founded in 1973.
67. LCPARK_191205_338.JPG: Supporter of the Honorable Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) was the first black woman elected to the United States Congress. She served as the representative for the 12th district of New York from 1969 to 1972. In 1972, Chisholm became the first black woman to seek a majority party's nomination for the U.S. presidency. She won ten percent of the votes at the Democratic National Convention. Rosa Parks supported Chisholm's congressional and presidential campaigns.
68. LCPARK_191205_343.JPG: Supporting Jesse Jackson for President In 1984 Reverend Jesse Jackson ran for the Democratic Party's nomination for president. Rosa Parks praised his effort for "giving the depressed and deprived some hope." That spring she participated in several campaign events organized by the D.C. Women's Network. She also supported his second run in 1988. Jackson delivered the eulogy at Rosa Parks' funeral in Detroit on November 2, 2005.
69. LCPARK_191205_348.JPG: Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development In 1987 Rosa Parks and her longtime friend Elaine Steele co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development "to motivate and direct youth not targeted by other programs to achieve their highest potential." In 1989 the Institute began the "Pathways to Freedom" bus tours. Students, age eleven through seventeen, conducted research and "trace the route of the Underground Railroad into the civil rights movement and beyond."
70. LCPARK_191205_354.JPG: The Million Man March, 1995 Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan invited Rosa Parks to attend the Million Man March on October 16, 1995. She joined friends Queen Mother Moore, Betty Shabazz, Dorothy Height, and Maya Angelou in the lineup of major speakers. In a brief yet fervent speech Rosa paid tribute to her husband Raymond, urged the assembly of black men "to make changes in their lives for the better," and pledged to "always work for human rights of all people."
71. LCPARK_191205_358.JPG: Early Recyclist Rosa Parks recycled assorted pieces of papers, aluminum foil, jars, and tea bags to save money. She wrote these manuscript notes on the back of a pharmacy bag. The final draft appears in her book Quiet Strength (1994). "We need to continue the struggle to realize our goal of equality. The dream of which Dr. King spoke -- one that should be held by all -- has yet to be realized. So the movement continues."
72. LCPARK_191205_362.JPG: Early Recyclist Rosa Parks recycled assorted pieces of papers, aluminum foil, jars, and tea bags to save money. She wrote these manuscript notes on the back of a pharmacy bag. The final draft appears in her book Quiet Strength (1994). "We need to continue the struggle to realize our goal of equality. The dream of which Dr. King spoke -- one that should be held by all -- has yet to be realized. So the movement continues."
73. LCPARK_191205_365.JPG: "Our freedom is threatened every time one of our young people is killed by another child, .... every time a person gets stopped and beaten by the police because of the color of their skin."
74. LCPARK_191205_369.JPG: Presidential Medal of Freedom On September 15, 1996, President Clinton awarded Rosa Parks the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor given by the U.S. executive branch. Rosa was unable to attend the White House ceremony on September 9 in which ten other distinguished Americans were recognized, thus she received her medal alone in an Oval Office ceremony. Clinton later escorted Rosa to the annual dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
75. LCPARK_191205_379.JPG: Congressional Gold Medal On June 15, 1999 President Clinton awarded Rosa Parks the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest honor given by the U.S. legislative branch. President Clinton said at a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol, "In so many ways, Rosa Parks brought America home to our founders' dream." Congresswoman Julia Carson (D-IN.), who introduced the legislation called Parks "the mother of the civil rights movement." The audience included members of Congress and many civil rights activists.
76. LCPARK_191205_388.JPG: "For many years, I had wanted to start an organization to help young people. In 1987, along with Elaine Steele, I cofounded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development."
77. LCPARK_191205_389.JPG: One Day of Peace Festival In 1994 American gospel singer Cyndee Peters organized the "One Day of Peace" festival in Stockholm, Sweden, in honor of Rosa Parks. Rosa attended the weekend event, which included concerts and seminars. During an evening ceremony Rosa was told that a foundation established by Peters had endowed a "Rosa Parks Peace Prize." She was asked to choose its first recipient in 1995 -- the 40th anniversary of the bus boycott.
78. LCPARK_191205_391.JPG: Honorary Degree from Mount Saint Vincent University In July 1998 Rosa Parks traveled to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to oversee the Pathways to Freedom bus tour co-sponsored by the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development and the Nova Scotia Pathways to Freedom Organizing Committee. That year, youth from Nova Scotia and the United States participated in a training and history tour to learn more about the province's earliest black settlements. While in Halifax, Rosa received an honorary degree from Mount Saint Vincent University at a special convocation held in her honor.
79. LCPARK_191205_394.JPG: Pope John Paul II In January 1999 Rosa Parks traveled to St. Louis, Missouri, to meet with Pope John Paul II. He began the New Year by calling for racial healing. After a prayer service at the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis, Rosa shared her thoughts on civil rights and racial healing with the Pope and gave him a copy of her book, Quiet Strength (1994).
80. LCPARK_191205_397.JPG: Calligraphy The story of Rosa Parks's bus stand received international newspaper coverage. Her humble demeanor and philosophy of "Quiet Strength" were particularly resonant in Asia. She was sent prayer beads from India, received an honorary degree from Soka University, and her books were translated into Japanese. These paper strips showing "Mrs. Rosa Parks" written in Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, and Tamil scripts further attest to the high esteem in which she was held.
81. LCPARK_191205_400.JPG: NAACP Spingarn Medal In 1979 Rosa Parks received the sixty-fourth Spingarn Medal, the NAACP's highest honor, at the seventieth annual convention in Louisville, Kentucky. Federal Judge Damon Keith, a friend and former medal recipient, made the presentation, and Vice President Walter Mondale delivered the address. Shortly thereafter, Rosa said joyously "I am truly grateful to have lived to see this day." Among the well-wishers was Aubrey Williams, president of the Louisville NAACP branch and a loyal friend since the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
82. LCPARK_191205_403.JPG: Soka University In January 1993 Rosa Parks was introduced to Buddhist philosopher and poet Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, the president of Soka University, on the American campus in Calabasas, California. She accepted Ikeda's May 1994 invitation to its sister campus in Japan to receive an honorary degree from the university he founded. At one event thousands of Soka University students stood up, joined hands, and sang "We Shall Overcome" in English. Rosa was moved to tears.
83. LCPARK_191205_406.JPG: National Portrait Gallery's Bust of Rosa Parks In March 1991 a large bronze bust of Rosa Parks, created by sculptor Artis Lane, was unveiled and presented to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., as a gift of the Anheuser-Busch Companies. During the unveiling ceremony, Mayor Sharon Pratt Dixon presented Rosa with the key to the city, and Cicely Tyson recited a Maya Angelou poem. Coretta Scott King, Dorothy Height, Joseph Lowery, and several members of Congress including John Conyers (D-MI), John Lewis (D-GA), and Gus Savage (D-IL) also attended.
84. LCPARK_191205_413.JPG: Federal Prison Camp In later years Rosa Parks wintered in Southern California with friends and family to escape the frigid Michigan temperatures. The Federal Prison Camp in Boron, California, seventy-five miles northeast of Los Angeles, was a self-contained minimum-security prison that operated from 1979 to 2000. On February 8, 1993, the prison's Black Affairs Committee hosted and saluted Rosa Parks for the annual Black History Month celebration. She had lunch and met with the inmates in the Food Service Annex.
85. LCPARK_191205_420.JPG: "We must have courage -- determination -- to go on with the task of becoming free -- not only for ourselves, but for the nation and the world -- cooperate with each other. Have faith in God and ourselves."
86. LCPARK_191205_422.JPG: A Life of Global Impact A Life of Global Impact "We must have courage -- determination -- to go on with the task of becoming free -- not only for ourselves, but for the nation and the world -- cooperate with each other. Have faith in God and ourselves." Rosa Parks's principled defiance established her as an international symbol of human dignity and freedom. Children from around the world sent her birthday cards, letters, and drawings. She was given many awards and honors, including more than forty honorary doctoral degrees from universities. In 1963, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference inaugurated the annual Rosa Parks Freedom Award. In the 1970s and 1980s, Rosa received the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, the UAW's Social Justice Award, and the Martin Luther King, Jr., Nonviolent Peace Prize. In the 1990s, the Smithsonian unveiled a bust in her likeness, the Rosa Parks Peace Prize was established in Stockholm, Sweden, and the Medal of Freedom was awarded to her by President Bill Clinton. In addition, Rosa received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999. The Rosa Parks Library and Museum opened in Montgomery in 2000. The television movie, The Rosa Parks Story aired on CBS in 2002. After her death, in 2005, her body lay in honor at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. Rosa was the first woman given that distinction. A statue of Rosa Parks was placed in National Statuary Hall in 2006. Today buildings, streets, and parks carry the name Rosa Parks.
87. LCPARK_191205_425.JPG: Cards and Notes from Children During her long life Rosa Parks became a tangible reminder to schoolchildren of her sacrifice, bravery, and dignity during the struggle for civil rights as African American history was integrated into the school curriculum. More than 500 hand-crafted birthday cards and thank you notes by school children were sent to Rosa from all over the United States during the last decades of her life.
88. LCPARK_191205_435.JPG: The Rosa Parks Middle School The Rosa Parks Middle School is a highly-rated public school in Olney, Maryland. Its 869 students in grades six to eight "are encouraged to pursue a rigorous program of studies based on their individual interests and abilities." In 1993 Rosa Parks attended the dedication ceremony for the middle school named in her honor.
89. LCPARK_191205_438.JPG: 1967 Detroit Riot On July 23, 1967, Twelfth Street became the epicenter of the five-day Detroit riot. In the aftermath, 5,000 people were left homeless, 7,000 were jailed, 43 people were killed, and property damage was estimated at 45 million dollars. Raymond Parks's barbershop was one of the looted businesses; both he and Rosa were devastated. Detroit residents signed a petition to rename the besieged street in honor of Rosa Parks. On July 14, 1976, Twelfth Street was formally renamed Rosa L. Parks Boulevard in a ribbon cutting ceremony officiated by Mayor Coleman Young.
90. LCPARK_191205_442.JPG: Mount Holyoke College In 1951 E. D. Nixon introduced Rosa Parks to Virginia Durr, a liberal white activist and native Alabaman newly settled in Montgomery. Durr cofounded the Southern Conference Educational Fund (1946), which supported the bus boycott and other civil rights causes. She hired Rosa as a dressmaker, became a mentor, and asked friends to help with Rosa's financial difficulties. Mount Holyoke College awarded Doctor of Humane Letters degrees to both activists on May 24, 1981.
91. LCPARK_191205_445.JPG: Rosa Parks's Seventy-Seventh Birthday Celebration In 1990 a party was held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., to celebrate Rosa Parks's seventy-seventh birthday. The black-tie event was primarily intended to benefit the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development. Cicely Tyson, the mistress of ceremonies, introduced a series of stellar musical performances to an audience of 3,000 people. Coretta Scott King and Dick Gregory delivered personal tributes. Rosa is shown here at the party with three Montgomery comrades.
92. LCPARK_191205_447.JPG: Physician-Author Deepak Chopra In this letter physician-author Deepak Chopra recounts being touched by Rosa Parks's bus stand as a young boy in India and the effects her actions had on his parents and family who shared "wounds of slavery and subjugation." "They cheered and saluted the heroism of the black woman Rosa Parks." Chopra collaborated with Rosa Parks on an audiobook, Secrets of Inner Power: A Profile in Courage (1999).
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].