City Newspaper Archives - 11/2007
HISTORY: A civil-rights museum on wheels
Published by Tim Louis Macaluso on Nov 06, 2007
A similar bus was recently purchased and restored by local attorney and city school board member, Van Henri White. He has converted a 1957 GM diesel-engine, 24-seat bus into a civil-rights museum on wheels.
"I thought it was the perfect way to tell Rosa Parks' story, so people could actually see her struggle," says White.
The bus is equipped with historical photographs. It will also have a drop-down DVD system, and there will be staged re-enactments of Parks' ordeal.
Parks had a similar experience on the same bus with the same driver four years earlier, says White.
During the famous incident, Parks "was not in the front of the bus, either, as some people have stated," says White. "She was seated in the middle, in an area called ‘No Man's Land.'"
African-Americans could sit in this area as long as whites weren't using those seats, says White. But if one white person wanted to sit in the area, all of the African- Americans had to leave their seats.
White plans to take the bus to schools and places of worship throughout the county. The bus' first appearance will be at Franklin Educational Campus, 950 Norton Street, on Friday, November 9.
Article Photos
Civil-rights icon Rosa Parks rode a bus similar to this 1957 GM model, says attorney and school board member Van Henri White. He purchased the bus to create a mobile museum in Parks' honor. Photo by Joe Bell.
