The Troy University Rosa Parks Museum has prepared a two-week commemorative exhibit of the action Rosa Parks took December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama.
Parks was arrested after refusing to give up her seat to a white male passenger while riding a segregated bus. Her arrest led to a mass protest of the city’s public transportation system, which desegregated after 381 days.
The Rosa Parks Museum’s gallery exhibit will feature artifacts including the original fingerprint card used in Parks’ arrest and “other personal effects from the Library of Congress’ collection,” according to the museum’s announcement.
The exhibit “Tired of Giving In: 65 Years Since the Montgomery Bus Boycott” will be open for viewing in the museum’s gallery from December 1-18.
During the commemoration, the museum will also debut two new traveling exhibits, “The Women of the Movement,” and “The Legacy of Rosa Parks” funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ African American History and Culture program.
“The Women of the Movement” exhibit features digitized material from archives to tell the stories of several women leaders and women-led groups of the Civil Rights Movement, including Claudette Colvin, Mary Louise Smith, Jo Ann Robinson, Aurelia Browder, and Lucille Times.
In the second traveling exhibit, the Museum will feature “an overview of the history of the Rosa Parks Museum, the life of Mrs. Parks, the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the relevance of nonviolent disobedience today.”
In 2018, the Alabama state government unanimously passed a bill declaring December 1 Rosa Parks Day. It is the fourth state to have a day dedicated to Rosa Parks, and it’s the first Alabama holiday to celebrate a woman.
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