Rosa Parks documentary coming to Peacock in 2022

Peacock announced Wednesday that production has begun on "The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks," a full length documentary about the life of the civil rights icon. The doc is slated to premiere on the streaming platform in 2022.

"Rebellious Life" is being directed by Yoruba Richen (HBO's "Black and Missing") and Johanna Hamilton. Soledad O’Brien is executive producing.

The documentary, promises to go beyond Parks' historic 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, is based on Jeanne Theoharis' 2013 biography, "The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks."

Before there was Rosa Parks, there was Claudette Colvin

Most people think of Rosa Parks as the first person to refuse to give up their seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. There were actually several women who came before her; one of whom was Claudette Colvin.

It was March 2, 1955, when the fifteen-year-old schoolgirl refused to move to the back of the bus, nine months before Rosa Parks’ stand that launched the Montgomery bus boycott. Claudette had been studying Black leaders like Harriet Tubman in her segregated school, those conversations had led to discussions around the current day Jim Crow laws they were all experiencing. When the bus driver ordered Claudette to get up, she refused, “It felt like Sojourner Truth was on one side pushing me down, and Harriet Tubman was on the other side of me pushing me down. I couldn't get up."

Claudette Colvin’s stand didn’t stop there. Arrested and thrown in jail, she was one of four women who challenged the segregation law in court. If Browder v. Gayle became the court case that successfully overturned bus segregation laws in both Montgomery and Alabama, why has Claudette’s story been largely forgotten? At the time, the NAACP and other Black organizations felt Rosa Parks made a better icon for the movement than a teenager. As an adult with the right look, Rosa Parks was also the secretary of the NAACP, and was both well-known and respected – people would associate her with the middle class and that would attract support for the cause. But the struggle to end segregation was often fought by young people, more than half of which were women.

Montgomery, Alabama unveils Rosa Parks statue

A new statue of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks was unveiled in downtown Montgomery on December 1, 2019.

“This depiction will inspire future generations to make the pilgrimage to our city, to push toward the path of righteousness, strength, courage and equality,” said Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed, who took office as the first African-American mayor of the city last month.

Gov. Kay Ivey and Reed took part in pulling down a shroud to unveil the statue at Montgomery Plaza at the Court Street Fountain, 30 feet from the spot where Parks is believed to have boarded the segregated bus where she refused to give up her seat to a white man on Dec. 1, 1955.

“We are here to be reminded of the struggle so future generations can do better, and be better,” Ivey said. “No one has ever stood so tall as did Rosa Parks when she sat down.”

Dec. 1 is now Rosa Parks Day, commemorating her arrest, which sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

The statue of Parks depicts her standing, with her hands clutching her purse in front of her.

Granite markers at the site will honor four women who were plaintiffs in Browder vs. Gayle, the court case that led to a ruling that segregation on Montgomery’s public buses was unconstitutional.

The civil rights memorials are a partnership between the City of Montgomery, Montgomery County, the Alabama Department of Tourism and the Montgomery Area Business Committee for the Arts.

Montgomery County artist Clydetta Fulmer was commissioned to complete the work in conjunction with city and state bicentennial commemorations.

[SOURCE: AL.Com]

Barbie introduces Rosa Parks doll

Barbie® recognizes all female role models. The Inspiring Women™ Series pays tribute to incredible heroines of their time; courageous women who took risks, changed rules and paved the way for generations of girls to dream bigger than ever before.

Rosa Louise Parks led an ordinary life as a seamstress until an extraordinary moment on December 1, 1955. When she refused an order to give up her seat to a white passenger and move to the back of the bus, Mrs. Parks’ act of defiance became the catalyst for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Rosa Parks’ quiet strength played a notable role in the civil rights movement, but it would still take another nine years and more struggles before the 1964 Civil Rights Act overruled existing segregations laws. Hailed as “the Mother of the Modern Civil Rights Movement,” Rosa Parks earned worldwide recognition and numerous awards including the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal of Honor.

Celebrate Rosa Parks and her impact on the civil rights movement with this Inspiring Women™ Series Rosa Parks Barbie® doll. Includes doll stand, Certificate of Authenticity and doll wearing fashion and accessories. Colors and decorations may vary.

Rosa Parks archive fully digitized by Library of Congress, now available online.

Rosa Parks’ archive of letters, writings, personal notes and photographs has been fully digitized by the Library of Congress and is now available online.

The library announced Wednesday the collection of 10,000 items belonging to Parks is available to the public.

Her collection was kept from the public for years because of a legal battle between her heirs and friends. But in 2014, philanthropist Howard Buffett bought the collection and placed it on long-term loan at the national library.

The library now holds about 7,500 manuscript items and 2,500 photographs from Parks, including the Bible she kept in her pocket, letters from admirers and her Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Read Rosa Park's archive here: ROSA PARK PAPERS

Rosa Parks' archive opening to public at Library of Congress

[SOURCE] Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus, reflected later on how it felt to be treated less than equal and once feistily wrote of how tired she was of being "pushed around" — parts of her history long hidden away.

Beginning Wednesday at the Library of Congress, researchers and the public will have full access to Parks' archive of letters, writings, personal notes and photographs for the first time. The collection will provide what experts call a more complex view of a woman long recalled in history for one iconic image — that of a nonviolent seamstress who inspired others to act at the dawning of the civil rights era.

A protracted legal battle between her heirs and friends had kept the collection from public view for years. But in 2014, philanthropist Howard Buffett bought the collection and placed it on long-term loan at the national library.

"I think it's one of the first times we're actually able to read her voice, and it just totally goes against this image of the quiet seamstress," said Margaret McAleer, an archivist at the library. "Her writings are phenomenally powerful."

"I had been pushed around all my life and felt at this moment that I couldn't take it anymore," she wrote. "When I asked the policeman why we had to be pushed around, he said he didn't know. 'The law is the law. You are under arrest.' I didn't resist."

Parks' archive provides scholars and the public with a fuller sense of her life and faith, her personality and her pain, said library historian Adrienne Cannon.

"It's important because we see Rosa Parks in a kind of almost frozen, iconic image — a hero that is not really real flesh and blood," Cannon said. "Here we get a sense of a woman that is really full flesh and blood."

The collection may surprise people by revealing Parks had an aggressive edge and supported more radical actions seeking equality over the years, archivists said. She used her symbolic status to support Malcolm X, Black Panther gatherings and the Wilmington 10 in North Carolina.

The library now holds about 7,500 manuscript items and 2,500 photographs from Parks, including the Bible she kept in her pocket, letters from admirers and her Presidential Medal of Freedom. A small exhibit is planned for March. All the items will be digitized and posted online.

Artifacts such as Parks' clothing, furniture and a pillbox hat she may have worn on the Montgomery bus, will find homes elsewhere. The library plans to place them with other museums or institutions that can conserve and display Parks' belongings. The library already is in talks with the Smithsonian's National Museum of African-American History and Culture, now under construction on the National Mall, to possibly house some items.