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Rosa Parks’ Memorabilia: Guernsey’s Auction House Seeking Institutional Home
Three years after her death civil rights activist Rosa Parks’ personal items are still in storage. In order to settle a dispute between the Parks family and the executors of the Parks Estate over who would control the likeness of the late “mother of the civil rights movement”, a Michigan court ordered Guernsey’s Auction House of New York to hold a sale of the archived items to an appropriate institution, with the proceeds from the sale to be divided between the survivors of Raymond Parks’ family and the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development.
The items will be sold as a complete collection of a microcosm of the heroic life of Mrs. Parks to be displayed so students of history now and in the future may learn about her as a complete person.
Included in the collection are Parks’ school books, notes and letters, personal photographs of Rosa and Raymond Parks with family, friends and pioneers. A collection of campaign buttons and Parks’ gold Congressional Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, two of the highest civilian honors offered by this country presented by President William Clinton and the dress she wore when she received these priceless recognitions.
According to Arlan Ettinger, president of Guernsey’s Rosa Parks memorabilia is considered to be one of the most substantial bodies of material ever to be made available pertaining to the civil rights era. He speaks of placing her archive in a proper place for exhibit , rather than auctioning off this collection of more than one thousand items.
Colleges, universities and museum institutions are encouraged to contact Guernsey’s at 212-794-228 to receive inventory details.
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