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Lot 238
Parks, Rosa (1913-2005) African-American civil rights activist; her refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a white person prompted the Montgomery Bus Strike and played an important role in launching the Civil Rights Movement. Two autograph documents, one written in pencil on lined notebook paper, 2 pp, 8 x 10½ in. and one written in ink, one page, 8¼ x 11¾ in., n.p., n.d. These are notes Mrs. Parks made, probably for her autobiography, regarding Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement, including her own arrest on a Montgomery bus.
"I met Dr. M.L.K. Jr. in August 1955. He had accepted the call as pastor of the Eexter Ave Baptist Church April 1954. His father was not pleased with his choice. He had married Miss Coretta Scott June 18, 1953 at her parents' home in Marion, Alababma. His father, Rev. M.L.K. Sr performed the ceremony. She was a classical singer. She graduated from Antioch College, and then went to study at Boston's New England Conservatory of Music. After much delay, Rev. MLK Jr delivered his first sermon as resident pastor to the Dexter congregation on Sept. 5, 1954. He presented a document, 'Recommendations to Dexter Ave Bapt. Church for the fiscal year 1954-1955,' which contained several changes of church. He set new goals. A social and political action committee would promote membership in the NAACP, sponsor forums & mass meetings before elections to discuss the issues. 'Every member of Dexter must be a registered voter.' Following my arrest Thurs. Dec 1, 1955, the early morning, Mon. Dec 5, the Montgomery buses were almost empty of black passengers. After my trial, the MIA was formed by clergymen and other citizens. Dr. King was chosen as spokesman and leader of the bus protest at the overflow mass meeting Monday evening at the Holt Street Baptist Church. The crowd both inside and outside of the church voted una[ni]mously to remain off the buses until satisfactory changes would be made in favour of the black riders. Dr. King's home was bombed."
A second piece of paper, 8¼ x 11¾ and written in ink, is about the bus company and the boycott. In part: "…Three times I've gotten off the bus because I could not countenance the treatment of Negroes….Twice I have heard a certain driver with high seniority mutter quite audibly 'black ape.'….It is interesting to read the editorials on the legality of this boycott. They make me think of that famous one that turned America from a tea- to a coffee-drinking nation. Come to think of it, one might say that this nation was founded upon a boycott…." Written on the back of the paper is "Holly Tree Inn," which was an inn at Hampton Institute, a historically black college in Hampton, Virginia, where Mrs. Parks was offered a job as a hostess after being fired from her job as a seamstress for a local department store in Montgomery. Mrs Parks worked at Holly Tree Inn for a year, beginning September 23, 1957. She later moved to Detroit, Michigan and worked as a secretary and receptionist to U.S. Representative John Conyers from 1965 to 1988. These notes are all in Mrs. Parks' hand, recounting events that changed the course of U.S. history. Estimated Value $15,000-UP
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