Rosa Parks Bronze Statue Unveiled At The National Statuary Hall

Rosa Louis McCauley Parks statue

Parks' nine foot bronze statue unveiled.

By H. Nelson Goodson

February 27, 2013

Washington, D.C. - On Wednesday, a full-size bronze statue of Rosa Louis McCauley Parks of Tuskegee, Alabama was unveiled by President Barack H. Obama (D-IL) at the National Statuary Hall in the Washington, DC. Capitol Building in her honor. 

The statue is close to nine feet tall and depicts Rosa Parks in bronze wearing the same clothes she wore on the day she was arrested. The monument consisting of both her statue and the granite pedestal on which it rests weighs 2,100 pounds.

At the unveiling ceremony were Sheila Keys, niece of Rosa Parks; Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, (D-Nev.); House Speaker John Boehner, (R-Ohio); House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, (D-Calif.); Assistant Democratic Leader Rep. James Clyburn, (D-S.C.); and Elaine Eason Keys.

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.