Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Rob Carr / Associated Press Employee Julia Wilson holds flowers that were left at the Troy University Rosa Parks Library and Museum in Montgomery, Ala. The 50,000-square-foot, three-story library and museum houses a replica of the green and yellow city bus on which Parks was arrested and re-creates the sights and sounds.

Ala. museum re-creates confrontation

Montgomery facility re-creates the sights and sounds of landmark confrontation in 1955.

By Oralandar Brand-Williams / The Detroit News

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Rosa Parks' contribution to the modern civil rights movement is enshrined in the Rosa Parks Library and Museum, located in the city that once arrested her for defying segregation laws, Montgomery, Ala.

The 50,000-square-foot, three-story library and museum houses a replica of the city bus on which Parks was arrested and re-creates the sights and sounds of that confrontation in 1955.

Opened in December 2000, the exhibit immerses visitors in the struggles of Parks and thousands of African-Americans and their allies in the South during the 1950s and 1960s.

Prominently displayed are papers showing Parks' arrest record and subsequent police surveillance reports of key figures, such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Visitors to the museum can see several sculptures of Parks.

Museum officials say the facility's 30,000 yearly visitors come from around the world.

"It's phenomenal," said Georgette Norman, the museum's director.

"We have had every state in the union (represented). There also have been (citizens from) 68 foreign countries here."

The museum sits on the site where Parks made her quiet but defiant stand in Montgomery.

Like so many civil rights museums across the South, it plays a big role in promoting better race relations and helping students learn more about the history of the civil rights movement.

"For young people who have no concept (of the modern civil rights movement), it lets them know how the world was then," Norman said.

"The younger people come in and say 'Oh my God' when they see her fingerprints," said Norman, referring to Parks.