ROSA

[kpete]

Parks becomes the first black woman to be honored with a full-length statue in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall. A bust of another black woman, abolitionist Sojourner Truth, sits in the Capitol Visitors Center.

Obama said that with the installation of the statue, Parks, who died in 2005, has taken her rightful place among those who have shaped the course of U.S. history. He said her presence in Capitol would serve to “remind us no matter how humble or lofty our positions, just what it is that leadership requires.”

Obama and House Speaker John Boehner jointly led the unveiling, standing with the statue between them as they grasped and pulled in opposite directions on the braided cord that held the covering. Congressional leaders in the House and Senate joined Parks’ niece in tugging on the cord.

“We do well by placing a statue of her here,” Obama said, “but we can do no greater honor to her memory than to carry forward the power of her principle and a courage born of conviction.”

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/rosa-parks-statue-unveiled-at-capitol.php

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. Someone doesn't look too happy to be there. nt

[badtoworse]

2. The honor is well deserved. She had a lot of guts

[deutsey]

3. Recalling Her Rebellious Life Before and After the Montgomery Bus Boycott

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/2/4/on_rosa_parks_100th_birthday_recalling

Today we spend the hour looking at Rosa Parks’ life with historian Jeanne Theoharis, author of the new book, "The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks."

Often described as a tired seamstress, no troublemaker, Parks was in fact a dedicated civil rights activist involved with the movement long before and after her historic action on the Montgomery bus.

"Here we have, in many ways, one of the most famous Americans of the 20th century, and yet treated just like a sort of children’s book hero," Theoharis says. "We diminish her legacy by making it about a single day, a single act, as opposed to the rich and lifelong history of resistance that was actually who Rosa Parks was."

[freshwest]

4. Are you listening, Scalia? History is being made. Do the right thing for a change.