Rosa Parks Statue Unveiled

Rosa Parks, the seamstress whose refusal to give up her seat on the bus sparked the civil rights movement, was enshrined in the US Capitol building today.

The nine foot tall statue depicts the civil rights icon in her most famous posture, sitting. San Pedro sculpture Eugene L. Daub, who along with partner Rob Firmin, created the statue said “Parks raised sitting to a new level, it’s not just sitting, it’s heroic sitting, sitting that changed history.”

President Barack Obama spoke at the unveiling “This morning, we celebrate a seamstress slight in stature but mighty in courage,” the president said. “In a single moment, with the simplest of gestures, she helped change America and change the world.”

Rosa Parks is the first African American woman to be honored with a statue in the Capitol. The Statuary Hall collection includes 100 statues in five locations in the Capitol. Among the others in Statuary Hall itself are William Jennings Bryan and Daniel Webster — and Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. Parks was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1999.

Rosa Parks Statue Unveiling Video