Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Carlos Osorio / Associated Press Students walk by the bus ridden by Rosa Parks when she refused to yield her seat to a white man a half-century ago that is on display at the Henry Ford Museum.

Detroit-area museum to honor Rosa Parks by draping bus in black

Associated Press

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DEARBORN -- A Detroit-area museum is celebrating the legacy of Rosa Parks by draping in black crepe the 36-passenger bus on which Parks began the civil rights movement.

Parks died Monday at her Detroit home. She was 92.

The Montgomery, Ala., bus where the civil rights pioneer refused to give up her seat to a white man in 1955 will sit in The Henry Ford's center plaza with the black crepe, said William Pretzer, curator of political history.

"We invite people to come in, take a seat on the bus, and then we make a presentation about an extraordinary event on a very ordinary bus," said Pretzer, who was instrumental in acquiring the run-down bus for $492,000 in 2001.

The General Motors bus, made with tens of thousands of others in suburban Pontiac, was restored with a $300,000 federal grant by using parts from other 1948 buses.

"We wanted to create the image of looking at the bus as Mrs. Parks might have looked at it when it was a 7-year-old bus in daily operation," Pretzer said.

On the Net:
The Henry Ford: http://www.hfmgv.org