Lost Capitol Hill: The Rosa Parks Statue at the Capitol Rotunda

I tend to look at things that are long-gone from Capitol Hill, hence my weekly column, but I also appreciate the new too.

And, with that in mind, I recently took a group on a tour of the Capitol. I usually love these tours because after I get my kids into the right line, I have about an hour to sit around in the visitor center cafeteria and kvetch with other tour guides.

But this time? Well, there was something new for me to see…

On December 1, 1955, a woman named Rosa Parks refused to obey the command of a bus driver. As an African American living in Montgomery, Alabama, the rules stated that she must move to the back of the bus whenever told to do so. Parks refused and sparked a boycott of the bus system that had far-reaching consequences, including the prominent appearance of a young Martin Luther King.

Eventually, segregation in buses was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Parks moved to Detroit, where she worked for Representative John Conyers. She continued to work for civil rights for the rest of her life, impressing everyone with the calm and determination that she had shown that winter day in Montgomery, Alabama.

When she died in 2005, she was given the ultimate honor of lying in state in the Capitol, only the second private person – after Peter L’Enfant, the designer of Washington. She was then buried in Detroit next to her husband.

Given her iconic stature, Parks was an obvious choice to be honored with a statue in the National Statuary Collection, which can be seen throughout the Capitol. The statues come from each state, and each state only gets two. Alabama already has two with Helen Keller and Joseph Wheeler, a cavalry general during the Civil War – on the Confederate side.

The new statue in National Statuary Hall (RSP)

It thus fell on Congress to commission and add to the collection. According the New York Times, this was the first statue commissioned by Congress in 140 years. It was designed by Robert Firmin, executed by Eugene Daub and shows Rosa Parks in all her quiet dignity – seated, of course.

In order to make space for her statue in the Capitol Rotunda, another statue had to be moved. The chosen one? Virginia’s statue of Robert E. Lee. Meanwhile, directly in line with her gaze is the statue of none other than Jefferson Davis.

While Rosa Parks may have helped the country make great strides, it is clear that there is still a long way to go.