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Rosa Parks, who helped launch the civil rights movement when she refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus, has been honored with the placement of a life-sized statue in the famed Statuary Hall in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.
Parks is the first black woman to be so honored. The statue portrays Parks as she remained seated on the bus awaiting arrest on Dec. 1, 1955 in Montgomery, AL. Her arrest sparked a year-long boycott of the bus system; subsequently, in 1956, a U.S. Supreme Court decision affirmed that segregation on buses was unconstitutional.
The unveiling ceremony on Feb. 27 attracted dozens of Washington, DC, officials, including President Barack Obama and congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle. “This morning, we celebrate a seamstress, slight of stature but mighty in courage,” Obama said during the ceremony. “And today, she takes her rightful place among those who shaped this nation’s course.”
Parks, who died in 2005, received numerous honors during her life and posthumously, including being portrayed by the U.S. Postal Service on a “Forever®” postage stamp on Feb. 4, which would have been her 100th birthday.
In 1997, APTA honored Parks with its first Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony in Washington, DC’s, Union Station, which she attended.
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Photo by Reuters
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), left, President Obama, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) lead the applause at the unveiling of a statue honoring Rosa Parks in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol. | |
