Sunday Focus: Where will the prize land?

     What would Rosa Parks say about the battle that is getting underway over her pillbox hat? It is the hat she MAY have worn the day she stopped being a seamstress at Montgomery Fair Department Store and walked onto the world stage.
     The hat and hundreds of other things that were her possessions were purchased for $4.5 Million on Thursday by a foundation formed by Warren Buffett's family.
    And what does the family want to do with the collection that has sat in a warehouse in NY for years because the Parks family fought over it?
     They want to give it away. To an "as yet undecided institution". Let me count the candidates, not in any particular order.

1- The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington won't open til next year. Perfect. That's the 60th Anniversary of Ms. Park's heroic act. Advantage: a national audience and lots of political clout.

2- The Troy University Rosa Parks Library and Museum in Montgomery. Located on the spot where it all happened, in Montgomery. Advantage: authenticity, and the only institution with her name on it.







3- The Southern Poverty Law Center's Civil Rights Memorial, also in Montgomery. More clout and money raising ability. Advantage: The site is already a regular tourist magnet.

4--The Henry Ford Museum in Detroit. Detroit? Ford? Well, they already have a key artifact of the Rosa parks story. The bus itself. How Montgomery let that slip through their fingers is worth of a Hollywood movie, but Ms. Parks moved to Detroit and died there. Disadvantage: the museum is too much car and not enough Civil Rights. Actually I think they should give up the bus too, but that's just Tim. Advantage: not many.

5-- The Alabama Department of Archives and History. They just opened the Alabama Voices museum inside. Advantage:  they are a world class facility already preserving Alabama's past, including the shoes Governor George Wallace was wearing when he was shot. Why not let them include artifacts one of Alabama's best known women? Advantage: A State Seal.

6--Alabama State University Center for Civil Rights and African American Culture has a bigger name than building. But ASU has clout too, and land to add on to the existing structure...or build a new building. They managed to convince the U.S. Park service to locate one of three interpretive centers for the Selma to Montgomery March on their campus even though the march never passed by there. Advantage: Persistence.

7--The City of Tuskegee, Alabama. I only mention it because that's where she was born, and there is a photo of the family home in the collection. And because Mayor Johnny Ford likes to think BIG. Advantage: Johnny Ford. And famed Civil Rights lawyer Fred Gray too.

8--The City of Montgomery, Alabama. The city has been planning a huge commemoration of the Parks Anniversary and the 50th of the Selma-Montgomery march.  Hey... The Montgomery Advertiser building is still for sale down at the Alabama River. How about The City of Montgomery Museum?
Advantage: Keeping the collection where it all happened in a dedicated location, though it probably could not be completed in time.


As a child, Rosa Parks also lived in Pine Level and Henry County, Alabama.

I'm sure there are other candidates I have not thought of who will also be making calls to Mr. Buffett.
I hope whoever gets it can make it available to the public in time for next year's 60th anniversary.

[UPDATE 9-12-14 Looks like the Library of Congress will be the home...for a decade anyway. Will a local institution propose an exhibit plan to being the materials home to Montgomery after that? Let's hope so.]

[Sunday Focus is a regular feature of TimLennox.com]