Rosa Parks Statue Unveiled at Capitol
President Barack Obama and congressional leaders unveiled a full-length statue of civil rights icon Rosa Parks in the Capitol Wednesday, paying tribute to a figure whose name became synonymous with courage in the face of injustice.
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.
Pictured: President Barack Obama (2-L) and Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-OH (2R) look at a statue of Rosa Parks during an unveiling ceremony in Statuary Hall on Capitol Hill February 27, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
