Parks Statue to Grace Capitol
Congress agreed Friday to place a statue of civil rights leader Rosa Parks in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.
Parks, who died Oct. 24 at age 92, refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., bus in 1955 -- an act of civil disobedience that helped spark the civil rights movement.
Both the House and the Senate approved by voice vote a bill placing the statue in the Capitol and sent the legislation to President Bush for his signature.
“Her statue will symbolize the nation’s triumph and progression from segregation to integration, from oppression to equality, and from division to union,” said Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), a sponsor of the legislation. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) sponsored the Senate measure.
Parks would be the first black woman to be represented in Statuary Hall, where many states have statues honoring notable people in their history.
Parks, a former seamstress, became the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda, where the bodies of President Lincoln, President Kennedy and other national leaders have been paid tribute. Statuary Hall is next to the Rotunda.
The Capitol architect’s office has two years to obtain a statue.
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