November 3, 2005

With paper, pencil, Parks made plans

Columnist Bill McGraw writes about the collection of Rosa Parks' papers donated to Wayne State 's Walter P. Reuther Library in 1976. "Over the years," he writes, "the Parks collection has been examined by the scholars, union members, journalists and students who generally use the library, which is known internationally for its archives on the history of the labor movement, civil rights and urban affairs." The collection includes papers, awards, letters, clippings and other items that connect with Parks' life between the 1950s and the mid-1970s. McGraw focuses on pages of notes from a yellow legal pad because they are among the only items in the collection that Parks herself wrote. She took the notes at a lecture during 10 days at a camp that provided training in labor and civil rights activism. The session Parks attended was held shortly after the 1954 Supreme Court decision that ruled racially segregated schools are illegal. "With the Supreme Court decree, the job is not if the schools will be integrated, but how to integrate them," she wrote. Photos of the notepad and one of the library's file rooms accompany the story.

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