45 years later, Rosa Parks inspires without words at museum dedication

Rosa Parks waves to the audience at Troy State University's Davis Theater in Montgomery, Alabama, on Friday

MONTGOMERY, Alabama (AP) -- Forty-five years after defying a city bus driver's order to give up her seat to a white passenger, Rosa Parks was back on the same street corner Friday, quietly inspiring people again.

The 87-year-old civil rights pioneer didn't speak, but she waved from her wheelchair to about 1,000 people attending the dedication of a $10 million university library and interactive museum named for her at Troy State University Montgomery.

"I just wanted to see her in person, to see how she looks. She's a famous woman, like a leader," said Tony Johnson, a 10th grader at Foley High School, after the ceremony of tributes and gospel music.

The arrest of Parks, then a seamstress, prompted a 381-day boycott of Montgomery buses that eventually lead to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that forced the integration of the city transportation system.

The boycott launched the modern civil rights movement and propelled the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to national prominence. King's widow, Coretta Scott King, was among those honoring Parks on Friday.

Many make pilgrimage

Gov. Don Siegelman awarded Parks the first Governor's Medal of Honor for Extraordinary Courage before the dedication ceremony. Mayor Bobby Bright proclaimed December 1 Rosa Parks Day.

"It was an act that changed this state and our nation forever," Siegelman said.

Troy State University Montgomery President Cameron Martindale said the university had planned a parking lot for the corner until realizing many people were making pilgrimages to the place where Parks was arrested.

The Rosa Parks Library and Museum opened Friday after the ceremony. It provides a glimpse of life under segregation, partly by recreating the conversation between Parks and the bus driver. It includes an old bus that was used in Montgomery at the time of Parks' arrest.

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Rosa Parks Library and Museum

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