Guests visit the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery.
Troy University’s Rosa Parks Museum opened its doors to the public to ring in Black History Month. Admission was free; anyone could see the history behind the civil rights icon.
According to the Rosa Parks Museum’s website, it is the nation’s only museum dedicated to Rosa Parks. Their mission is to honor her legacy and that of the boycott by providing a platform for scholarly dialogue, civic engagement, and positive social change.
“Mrs. Parks dedicated her life to activism,” said the museum’s Director of Operations, Donna Biesel, in an interview with Troy Today. “As we celebrate what would have been her 112th birthday, we want to remember all of her contributions to fight for justice and civil rights.”
Parks worked with other civil rights icons, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Together, they organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted for 13 months prior to Parks’ 1955 arrest.
The museum features many artifacts surrounding Rosa Parks and the greater civil rights movement. It also includes multiple educational programs for varying age groups and in different levels of detail.
Ann Clemons, who is often invited to the museum, dresses up as Parks to present “The Life and Legacy of Rosa Parks.” The performance is an in-depth, first-hand account of Rosa Parks’ life as if told by Parks herself.
“I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day,” Parks said in her autobiography My Story. “No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”
Parks was able to visit the museum when it opened in December 2000. She and her family toured the museum to celebrate its grand opening.
Parks passed away in 2005, but her history and legacy remain due to historians and museums such as Troy University’s. With the help of her family and dedicated historians, Rosa Parks’ legacy will be remembered for generations to come.
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