Montgomery unveils new Rosa Parks statue

The first black mayor of Montgomery, Ala., unveiled a statue honoring civil rights icon Rosa Parks on the anniversary of her 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus. 

According to AL.com, Steven Reed (D) unveiled the statue with the help of Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) at a ceremony on Sunday. Reed said the “depiction will inspire future generations to make the pilgrimage to our city, to push toward the path of righteousness, strength, courage and equality.”

“We are here to be reminded of the struggle so future generations can do better, and be better. No one has ever stood so tall as did Rosa Parks when she sat down,” Ivey said, according to the local news outlet.

The statue was reportedly placed approximately 30 feet from where Parks is believed to have boarded the bus on which she famously refused to turn over her seat to a white man on Dec. 1, 1955.

The unveiling came exactly 64 years after Parks’s arrest, which was a major moment in the civil rights movement and helped lead to the historic Montgomery bus boycott. 

According to The Associated Press, four granite markers are also to be erected at the site to honor the women who were plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case that found racial segregation on buses in Montgomery to be unconstitutional.

The women in the iconic case, Browder v. Gayle, are Aurelia Browder, Mary Louise Smith, Susie McDonald and Claudette Colvin.