Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 1, 1991 TAG: 9103010129
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Rosa Parks, 78, who now lives in Detroit, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Ala., on Dec. 1, 1955.
She was arrested, but her quiet protest of the South's Jim Crow laws inspired blacks to begin what became a yearlong bus boycott.
"When she boarded the bus in Montgomery, Ala., on that afternoon and refused to cooperate with or refused to be intimidated by racism, it was a decisive moment in the history of democracy," Coretta Scott King said at the unveiling.
The bust was sculpted by Artis Lane, and starting today will be on permanent display among likenesses of other great Americans in the National Portrait Gallery.
The artist said that her inspiration came from Parks' demonstration of courage:
"Too many good people do not do. They sit back and they don't do. We have to take action, each in our own individual way. She epitomizes that. She gives me strength."
King said Parks' action was an example of the spirit of non-violent resistance that her late husband, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, championed during the 1950s-1960s movement.
The Anheuser-Busch Co. commissioned the bust and donated it to the Smithsonian.
Among dignitaries at the hourlong ceremony were the Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Dorothy Height, president of the National Council of Negro Women, and U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich.
Actress Cicely Tyson, who delivered a dramatic reading, said, "Your life demonstrates for all the world's people to see that one individual can make a difference, and that we all must be vigilant if human rights are to be preserved."
After the unveiling, Parks said, "I am very pleased and happy and this is the high point of my life."
by CNB