Rescued Rosa Parks House Due To Return To America
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - The house where Rosa Parks lived after sparking the Montgomery bus boycott will be returned to the United States from Germany and displayed for three months in Rhode Island in a project organized by a Berlin-based artist and Brown University.
The house was set to be demolished in Detroit before Parks' niece bought it for $500 and donated it to artist Ryan Mendoza. Mendoza last year took it apart and shipped it to Berlin, then reassembled it in his yard.
The two have been hoping to bring it back to the U.S. In Providence, the house will be reassembled inside an arts center. It's expected to be displayed from March to May.
Mendoza is working to find a permanent place for the house elsewhere in the U.S.
Parks, who died in 2005, became a leading name in the civil rights movement for refusing in 1955 to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama. She moved to Detroit in 1957 to escape death threats and stayed in the house with her brother and his family — crammed into the tiny residence with more than 15 people.
After the financial crisis of 2008 and Detroit's dramatic decline, Parks' home was abandoned and put on a list for demolition. Parks' niece Rhea McCauley instead bought it from the city and donated it to Mendoza for preservation.
© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
