USA/FILE: U.S. civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks' personal items to be sold

Record ID: 402625

  • Title: USA/FILE: U.S. civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks' personal items to be sold
  • Date: 6th October 2011
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 5, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PHOTOGRAPH OF ROSA PARKS ON A BUS
  • Embargoed: 21st October 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVA9HG1FA5PHTIEWI0V2EN5U0VDB
  • Story Text: Thousands of personal items that once belonged to U.S. civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks are for sale.
    The exhaustive archive of her belongings, included photographs, clothing, many of her personal writings from the civil rights movement, and both her Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal of Honor. The archive is being sold as a single collection by Guernsey's Auctioneers and Brokers in New York City.
    Hundreds of handwritten letters and other documents detail Parks' life and thoughts.
    One page reads, "I had been pushed around all my life and felt at this moment that I couldn't take it anymore." Another reads, "I would rather be lynched than live to be mistreated."
    Arlan Ettinger, President of Guernsey's, said the archive shows Parks' strength and determination before and during the civil rights movement.
    "Here because Rosa Parks' writings were done at the moment, you have to believe they are very vivid depictions of what was going on in those tumultuous times and they therefore are a very accurate history lesson," said Ettinger to Reuters during an auction preview on Wednesday (October 5).
    In 1955, Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, refused to give her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white man. Her refusal changed the course of race relations. Her arrest sparked a 381 day bus boycott and thrust her into the center of the civil rights movement. Parks became known as "the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement". The next year the U.S. Supreme Court declared bus segregation to be unconstitutional.
    Parks' heroism earned her the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, two of the highest awards a civilian can earn in the United States, items that are included in the archive.
    "As an example of how complete the archive is, it would be extraordinary in and of itself to have that Presidential Medal of Freedom. I mean you can't get that at too many flea markets. But to have along with the Medal of Freedom is the photograph of her receiving it from President Clinton, is the large certificate that he signed bestowing it upon her and then there is the complete outfit she was wearing when she was in that photograph. So it's the whole tableaux. It's the whole shebang," said Ettinger.
    In addition to the writings by Parks, and her medals, other items for sale include family Bibles, some that date back to 1850, school books, hats, reading glasses, and even a post card sent to Parks from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
    There are more than 8,000 items in the Rosa Parks archive, and Ettinger insists the collection will not be split apart by various buyers.
    "Despite the fact that Guernsey's is known by many for its auctions was an auction per se in the cards. It's not spoken of. Our job is to find a wonderful home through a negotiated transaction. A home that is fitting to the nature of the collection," he said.
    Ettinger added, "It shouldn't go to a collector because he or she had deep pockets, but a place where future generations can be inspired and take advantage of this. That's all we care about."
    Ettinger believes the entire archive could sell for about 10 million dollars (USD).
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