Rosa Parks to be honored with full sized statue on Capitol Hill – first of African American woman

A younger Rosa Parks with Dr. Martin Luther King in 1955. PHOTO/Wikimedia Commons

Bravery, tenacity and maybe a little of her own stubbornness led Rosa Parks to refuse to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala. bus on a cold December day in 1955. That single act of defiance became an important symbol of the modern Civil Rights Movement – she became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation.

Ms. Parks will be honored with a statue of her likeness on Capitol Hill.

The statue which will be unveiled later this year, was commissioned by an act of Congress in 2005 and will be the first full-sized statue of an African American woman to be included to the Capitol grounds and will stand among other notable American figures including Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.

Rosa Parks who died in October 2005 would have been 100 on February 4, is being honored in various ways in addition to the statue of her likeness including – a Rosa Parks Forever stamp from the United States Post Office. The stamp is honored Parks with a one of three stamps in a Civil Rights set celebrating freedom, courage and equality.

Source: AFRO