Lot 252
Parks, Rosa (1913-2005) Civil Rights icon; called "The First Lady of Civil Rights" by the U.S. Congress. Autograph Letter Signed ("R.L. Parks") with a postscript initialed ("RLP"), 1¼ pp, on ruled note paper, 7 x 5", n.p., Mar. 17 (19)92. To Mr. Keyser, mentioning her famous arrest, which started the modern Civil Rights Movement, and the ensuing Montgomery bus boycott: "I do not remember your letter of a few years ago. It may still be filed or packed away, not discarded. I retired from Congressman John Conyers in 1988. The enclosed photo [not present] was taken Dec. 21, 1956 when the Montgomery Bus Boycott ended, not on Dec. 1 1955, the first time I was arrested. " In a postscript, she writes, "Two enclosures of my present activities" [not present]. Fine condition.
Rosa Parks, a seamstress and NAACP secretary, was arrested on Dec. 1, 1955 for not giving up her seat on the bus to a white passenger. Her courageous action sparked a year-long boycott of the Montgomery, Alabama transit system, led by the Montgomery NAACP and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The NAACP filed a class-action suit based on the unconstitutionality of the laws requiring segregation on the buses. An Alabama district court agreed that the laws were unconstitutional and the case went to the Supreme Court. On Nov. 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld the district court's decision and refused to hear appeals. An order was issued that Montgomery should integrate its buses on Dec. 20, 1956 and on Dec. 21, 1956, the bus boycott ended. The Rev. Jesse Jackson said at Mrs. Parks' funeral in 2005, "She sat down that we might stand up."
Estimated Value $800 - 1,000.
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| Realized $3,000 |
