“Forgotten Hollywood”- Rosa Parks to Have Her Own Exhibit…
Manny P. here…
Just in time for Black History Month! Beginning Wednesday at the Library of Congress, researchers and the public will have full access to Rosa Parks’ archive of letters, writings, personal notes, and photographs for the first time. The collection will provide what experts call a more complex view of a woman long recalled in history for one iconic image — that of a nonviolent seamstress who inspired others to act at the dawning of the Civil Rights era. Philanthropist Howard Buffett bought the collection and placed it on long-term loan at the national library.
Parks, who died in 2005 at 92, is beloved in American history for her civil disobedience on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. That defining moment in 1955 triggered a yearlong bus boycott that eventually helped dismantle a system of segregation.
After her arrest, Parks lost her job as a tailor at Montgomery’s largest department store because of her activism. Her husband also struggled for employment, and the couple sank into deep poverty. They moved to Detroit but continued to struggle.
Parks traveled with the NAACP, pressing for civil rights, and then, landed a job at the Hampton Institute in Virginia earning $3,700 a year — enough to send some money home to her husband and mother. It wasn’t until 1965 when she was hired at the district office of Michigan Representative John Conyers that she finally earned a steady, living wage.
The collection may surprise people by revealing that Parks had an aggressive edge, and supported more radical actions seeking equality over the years, archivists said. She used her new-found status to support Malcolm X, Black Panther gatherings, and the Wilmington 10 in North Carolina.
The library now holds about 7,500 manuscript items and 2,500 photos from Rosa, including a Bible she always kept, letters from admirers, and her cherished Presidential Medal of Freedom. A small exhibit is planned for March. All items will be digitized and posted online. They are in talks with Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, under construction on the National Mall, to house more of her items. ROSA PARKS
What a heck of a bus ride for the iconic Rosa Parks!
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Monday, February 2nd, 2015 at 12:20 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
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