Rosa Parks' Bronze Statue To Be Place At Statuary Hall In Washington, D.C. Capitol Building

Rosa Louis McCauley Parks

Photo: Reuters

Parks' statue to be unveiled later this year.

By H. Nelson Goodson

January 21, 2013

Washington, D.C. - Later in the year, a full-size bronze statue of Rosa Louis McCauley Parks of Tuskegee, Alabama will be placed at the National Statuary Hall in the Washington, DC. Capitol Building in her honor, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) confirmed during President Barack H. Obama's second inauguration luncheon at the Statuary Hall. Parks, an African-American civil rights activist on December 1, 1955 refused an order by Montgomery, Alabama bus driver James F. Blake to move back of the bus from the colored section and give up her seat to a white passenger after the white seating section was filled.

She was arrested and sparked a major civil rights movement against segregation and a boycott of the Montgomery bus company.

Parks actions led to her termination as a seamstress from a local department store. She then moved to Detroit and found a similar job.

Between 1965 to 1988, Parks worked as a secretary and receptionist for former U.S. Representative John Conyers, an African-American. 

Parks passed away on October 24, 2005 at the age of 92. She became the first woman and second non-government official to lie in honor at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington,  D.C.