Newest exhibition, rosa parks in her own words. It is my honor to welcome members of congress, including members of the congressional black caucus, members of the rosa parks family, who have come to washington for this special celebration. Can we give them a hand . [applause] we would also like to welcome the rosa and Raymond Parks institute for self development. That is another round of applause. [applause] and photographer donna, whose photo of ms. Parks is displayed in a vital part of the exhibition. And all the leaders and staff of different cultural at institutions across washington, including secretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie bunch. [applause] the and the archivist of the united states, david. [applause] ourour Library Staff and live. S on this is being livestreamed right now. I have to tell you we are radiating with joy and pride because it is our pleasure to open this beautiful land compelling exhibition about one of our countrys most beloved civil rights icons, rosa parks. The collection resonates strongly with me. After i was sworn in as 14th librarian of congress in 2016, the first collection i was able to see was the rosa parks papers. Manuscript specialist, who was carter g didnt of woodson, the father of black history, showed me the collection and she carefully presented to me the different photographs and letters on private notes handwritten by rosa parks. Adrian is here tonight and is proud curator of the exhibition. [no audio] [applause] [applause] from the first moment i saw her family bible, letters and writings, i felt the overwhelming power of the collection. Wrote afterr she the arrest, i have been pushed around all my life and felt at this moment that i couldnt take it anymore. And you then when i read those words that i had to share these papers with the public, for a much broader view. And in this wonderful exhibit, through her own words, the rosa parks you will discover was not posterity, sher was writing in the moment for herself. This is not the rosa parks we met in textbooks or Public Service announcements, but it is the very complex, very human and the very real rosa parks. Her powerful story and long fight for justice have always thenated with me, and is first woman and first africanamerican to serve as librarian of congress, i take special pleasure in having the rosa parks collection housed here. [applause] here in the Worlds Largest library, sidebyside with the papers of frederick douglass, abraham lincoln, Mary Church Terrel and thurgood marshall. Rosa parks lived a life dedicated to equal rights and social justice and help change the country with the examples she set. Standse of rosa parks with pride in the capital of rotunda, and in this exhibition you will see her standing tall quite literally, as her photos, papers and videos tower more than 12 feet above you. None of this would have been possible without the generosity of the howard g buford the rosan, who made parks collection a gift to the nation and the library. It all started when jensen collins, journalist, learned the collection was stored away in boxes in a warehouse. About and itory was read by mr. Howard buffett, who bought the papers and gave them to the library so that they could be preserved and seen by everyone. Jensen is now a scholar at the library of congress. [applause] the collection comprises 10,000 both missn from Parks Private life entered decades of work for civil rights. It is photos and correspondence, handwritten reflections, private notes during the montgomery bus boycott in the struggle she endured after. Director, our exhibit david mandel and his team, have curated a beautiful gallery that will tell ms. Parks story in her own words and photographs. It is an honor to open the exhibition to the general public on december 5, the 64th anniversary of the montgomery bus boycott. , weas part of the opening are releasing, i am a librarian, this companion book, rosa parks in her own words, written by susan raburn. It includes many photographs and documents you will see in the exhibition, and we are delighted to be joined by people from the university of Georgia Press who worked with the librarys Publishing Office to create this elegant companion piece. We also started something new with this exhibition at the library of congress. The first time we are launching and askthelibrarian mobile research station within the exhibition. Have thet time wevisitors will opportunity to delve more deeply into subjects, themes and online resources related to misses parks life through direct interaction with librarians. Generous acknowledge donors who made this exhibition possible, the ford foundation, the Catherine B Reynolds foundation, and the reynolds are [applause] joy sentort from aarp, thomas moorehead, who are also here joyce and thomas moorehead, who are also here. [applause] and the capital group. We cant thank you enough for your generosity and support. [applause] the curator, adrian, explained to me the storyteller of this exhibition is rosa parks. It is her words and her voice that will be echoing through the gallery as you walk around the displays. It is the full story of rosa lifelonge seasoned, activist and the woman behind the civil rights icon. [applause] now we are going to find out which of these ladies really is the incredible rosa parks . Will the real rosa parks please stand up . [applause] rosa parks was often taught as a meek seamstress who one day accidentally stumbles into history and refuses to give up her seat on the bus, launching the Civil Rights Movement. Her activism starts two decades before in 1955 and will continue for four decades after. Rosa as far as i can remember, during my lifetime, i resisted the idea of being mistreated and pushed because of my race and i felt that all people should be free regardless of their color. One day, when i was about 10, i met a little white way named franklin on the road. He was about my size, maybe larger. He said something to me and he threatened to hit me. He rolled up his fists as if to give me a sock. I picked up a brick and dared him to hit me. He thought better of the idea and went away. I loved that, at 10, she knew the deep injustice of things. Perhaps the case that got through the most is the case about a 16yearold by the name of jeremiah reese. Reeves was a high school student, jazz drummer, and delivered groceries, and its actually started having a relationship with a young white woman that got found out. She cried rape. They actually put him in the electric chair and told him if he did not confess, he would be electrocuted on the spot so he gave his confession. She began writing letters and trying to organize around blocking that execution, got dr. King involved, and it did not succeed, and he was executed, and she would tell me how devastating that was and how it broke her heart. This is a rosa parks letter from 1956. I cried bitterly that i would be lynched rather than run over by them. They could get the rope ready for me at anytime they wanted to do their lynching. While my neck was spared bthe lynch rope and my body was never riddled by bullets or derived by an auto, i felt that i was lynched many times in mind and spirit. She was a believer that you had to dissent, that you had to voice your objections, even if you could not see that that would do any good. Rosa parks, like my mom, has her own definition of who she is, and she does not let anybody change that definition. Help plan for a better world of tomorrow by giving all the love, care, and guidance to our children of today. As a child, when you read about important people, i thought that these were physical giants, people who spoke a language that was different from the language that i spoke, and i found that those were regular people, and so, i have always felt that, you know, a person does not have to be out of this world to accomplish something as extraordinary as that. We must have courage, determination, to go on with the task of becoming free, not only for ourselves, but for the nation and the world, cooperate with each other, have faith in god, and in ourselves. And i just think we underestimate the kind of courage it took to stand up to these forces that had silenced and marginalized black people from the very day we came to this continent, and yet she was taking them on. I think it was really an amazing part of her legacy was the courage, the strength, the bravery that defined her as a human being. I think when we are involved in excavating American History in coming to terms with our real history, i think too often, we find that most history is a sanitized madison avenue version of it, but she is a lifelong activist and she represents the variety of strategies to combat the persistent racism in the united states. I think it is important that we liberate rosa parks and ourselves from the tyranny of the superficial history. Harm and danger, the dark closet of my mind, so much to remember. And yes, it is somewhere in the dark closet of my mind, too. It cannot help it be in the dark closet of your mind. You should never forget. There is so much to remember. But i also know that this exhibit will show that rosa parks made a difference in moving us forward. And move forward we must, even as we remember the past. We have to look to a brighter future. [applause] please welcome the honorable john lewis, representative from georgia. [applause] rep. Lewis good evening. Good evening. Rep. Lewis you are a beautiful group. You look good. [laughter] let me say to the librarian of congress, thank you. I dont want to cry tonight, but i may shed some tears. Thank you for opening this place to have this exhibit in honor of a savior of our country. Of our democracy. Andt werent for rosa parks the rest, i dont know where i would be. I dont know where our nation would be. I dont know where we would be as a people. This woman, by sitting down, she encouraged so many others to stand up. And since then, many of us have never looked back, and we will continue to look forward. Freddie gray would tell you, my friend, my attorney, you were attorney for many of us. An unbelievable number of clients. People just came. Said we need your help. I grew up in rural alabama about 50 miles from montgomery. 48 to 50 miles from montgomery. My father had been a sharecropper, a tenant farmer, but in 1944, when i was four years old, and i remember when i was four, my father had saved 300, and a man sold him 110 acres of land. We still own that land today. [applause] peoplewis growing up, lived in fear. Whitew the signs saying only, colored only, white boys, colored boys, white girls, colored girls. Growing up, i was told by my mother, my father, my grandparents, and my great grandparents, dont get in trouble. But rosa parks inspired us to get in trouble. And i have been getting in trouble ever since. [applause] if you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have an obligation to say something, to do something. I met rosa parks. Staff repaired a statement, prepared a statement, but i cannot stay with it. I have been moved by the spirit. If it hadnt been for rosa parks, growing up there, i dont know what would have happened to so many people. She inspired us to get into good trouble, necessary trouble. I followed your leadership. I followed the words of Martin Luther king jr. , the action of rosa parks. Have a too poor to subscription to the local newspaper, but my grandfather had one. When he was finished reading his newspaper, he would pass it on to us to read, so i read about you. Reverend abernathy, and rosa parks. I kept saying to myself, if the people in montgomery can organize and stand up, we can stand up and organize. There was a Little College eight or 10 miles from our home called troy state. So i got a chance to get an application and apply to go to the school. I never heard a word from the school so i wrote a letter to Martin Luther king jr. And told him i needed his help. Because i have been inspired by rosa parks. Dr. King wrote me back and sent me a roundtrip Greyhound Bus ticket and invited me to come to montgomery to meet with him. I cannot forget it. Freddie gray, you still look the same way, so young. [laughter] rep. Lewis met me at the Greyhound Bus station and drove me to the First BaptistChurch Pastored by reverend abernathy, and ushered me in to the church. I saw Martin Luther king jr. And reverend abernathy standing behind the desk, and dr. King said are you the boy from troy . Are you john lewis . And i said, dr. King, i am john robert lewis. I gave him my whole name. He still called me the boy from troy. And over the years, i had an opportunity to meet rosa parks and to talk with her. She was so wonderful, so kind, and she kept saying to each one of us, you too can do something. She inspired us to participate in the sitins, to study the way of peace, the way of love, to study the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. Again, i want to thank you. Madame librarian. I want to thank you for what you are doing to help educate and sensitize another generation to stand up, to be brave, to be bold, to be seeageous and when people something that is not right, not fair, not just, do something. We cannot afford to be quiet. We live at a time where we must save our democracy. Save our planet. We must do what rosa parks did. When there comes a time to sit in, sit down, do it. A time to stand up, stand up. There comes a time to speak up. Speak up and speak out. Come a time to get in the way or to get in good trouble, necessary trouble, do it. Be brave. Be bold. Be courageous. Rosa parks believed as i believe. We have a right to know what is in the food we eat. We have a right to know what is in the water we drink, what is in the air we breathe. And each one of us today must find ways to tell the story of rosa parks. One brave woman. With the help of hundreds and thousands, have changed america forever. To use the way of peace, the way of love. To follow the teachings of gandhi and Martin Luther king, jr. To make our country better, and to help save our little planet. So thank you very much for being here tonight. And again, let me thank the library of congress. Thank you. [applause] thank you, congressman lewis. You are a living icon, and we owe so much to you. Thank you for being here and thank you, thank you, thank you. [applause] and now, we have more special guests joining us for an extraordinary discussion on the life and legacy of rosa parks. We are joined by attorney fred gray, who made history by representing miss parks after her arrest in montgomery. And jane gunter, who offered her seat to miss parks on the day of the bus on december 1, 1955, and they will be joined by cbs news correspondent and the anchor of the saturday edition of cbs this morning, miss michelle miller, who will be moderating a discussion. Please welcome attorney fred fred gray, jane dunker, and michelle miller. [applause] i feel honored and privileged to be here. Madam librarian, thank you. Thank you all for being here. Thank you. Miss gunter, mr. Gray, when you see this exhibit, when you see this exhibit, it shatters the notion of rosa parks as an accidental activist. Finally, that myth of an accidental activist will go by the way. The history, in her own words, will be spoken. The woman the two of you knew will be known, and part of the and reckoning, i find, with what we see upstairs is this funny, feisty, incredibly savvy american. You knew her long before 1954. I want you to describe the first moment you met her. Yes, maam. Michelle thank you, sir. Fred before i answer that question, thank you to the library and for inviting me to share this occasion here. I got my wife, carol, here. Some other relatives. If you just raise your hand. Those who are here. And also the president of the national bar association. I just want to thank those persons who have come. I want to thank congressman lewis. He wanted me to end up filing a lawsuit so he could go to troy state, but his parents were afraid. He was a minor. We introduced him to dr. King and it introduced him to the movement and the rest of this history. Now, what was your question . Michelle back to rosa parks. Back to that day that you met her, how would you describe her . Fred i had met rosa parks not just december 1, 1955, but i really at first met her when i was a student at what was then Alabama State college for negros. Alabama state university. I lived on the west side of town. Alabama state was on the east side of town. I was a student trying to learn how to be a teacher. I had already learned a Little Something about her to be a preacher, and that was the biggest thing that black boys in montgomery, alabama, in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s could be. I found out that ms. Parks worked with the naacp. She also worked with edie nixon, who was a family friend of ours, who was mr. Civil rights. So they were very much interested in doing whatever it took so that africanamericans would be able to enjoy the same rights and privileges of others. It was because of problems we had over buses, including a man who was killed as a result of an altercation on the bus, that i decided that in addition to being a preacher and being a teacher, i was going to be a lawyer. They tell me that lawyers help people. And i thought that the black people in montgomery had a real problem with buses. So i made a personal commitment when i was a teenager. I was going to finish college, go to somebodys law school, become a lawyer, but in order to do that at the university of alabama, go someplace else, come back, take the bar exam, and destroy everything segregated i could find. While i was thinking about doing parks working,ss doing what i wanted to do, and that was my first beginning. Move forward to three or four years later. I enrolled in the law school in cleveland. I finished in three years, took the ohio bar exam just in case. A month later, i took the alabama bar exam. On september 7, 1954, i became licensed to practice. Now, i am ready to destroy everything segregated i could find. [applause] fred one of the things that miss parks was doing, she was youth director, and one of the young ladies who was in her youth director course at the naacp was claudette. She was a 15yearold girl who did what rosa parks did, but did it nine months before without the instructions and without all him of the experience you learned about that miss parks had already gone through. But miss parks, she came in and helped me get my law office open. She worked at a