Officials unveiled two new statues at the Alabama Capitol in Montgomery on Friday. The new monuments honor Rosa Parks and Helen Keller. They were both Alabama natives.
There are other statues on the Capitol grounds. But before Friday, all the statues were of men. These two are the first women.
Alabama lawmakers decided to add the statues in 2019. A committee hired artists to make the displays. Six years later, the statues are in place.
Governor Kay Ivey spoke at the ceremony on Friday. “We gather to honor two remarkable Alabama women whose courage, faith and determination not only changed our state, but our world,” she said.
Helen Keller
Miss Keller was born in 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She became deaf and blind after a serious illness. That was before her second birthday. When she was six years old, a woman named Anne Sullivan started tutoring her. Miss Keller learned to communicate through sign language and Braille. Later, she learned to speak. She became a well-known writer and speaker. She argued for better treatment of workers, poor people, women, and people with disabilities around the world.
The statue of Miss Keller faces the Alabama Statehouse. Her right hand rests on a book showing Braille letters. Her left hand reaches out. Visitors can put their faces up to her hand. That’s how the real Miss Keller learned what people looked like. When someone spoke, she could read that person’s lips with her fingers.
Rosa Parks
Mrs. Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama. She was a civil rights activist. She wanted black people to have the same rights as white people. In 1955, there were separate sections on Montgomery buses for black and white passengers. Mrs. Parks sat in the front. When more white passengers came aboard, the driver told Mrs. Parks to give up her seat. She refused. Police arrested her. Many people boycotted the bus system for a year. Finally, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the bus system to be desegregated. That meant that there were no longer separate sections for black and white riders.
The statue of Mrs. Parks is by the Alabama Capitol steps. It faces Dexter Avenue. That’s the street where Mrs. Parks boarded the bus and made history in 1955.
Recommended Reading: For more about these two important women, read Helen Keller by Margaret Davidson and Rosa Parks: Young Rebel (Childhood of Famous Americans) by Kathleen Kudlinski.
