Police in Montgomery, Ala., on Monday began an investigation into a burglary of the apartment where civil rights icon Rosa Parks once lived. Detectives are looking for suspects who allegedly broke in and ripped and stole copper wiring from the apartment and several other now-vacant units undergoing renovation. Parks died in Detroit, Mich., in 2005 at age 92.
“Vandals came in and pilfered it,” said Evette Hester, executive director of the Montgomery Housing Authority which has been working recently to refurbish the complex and enhance its historic appeal. “They went in and stole the copper pipes and pretty much destroyed the apartment.”
Parks’ former apartment at 634 Cleveland Court is listed as her address in the 1955 police report following her arrest on a segregated city bus, an action which effectively launched the historic yearlong bus boycott. This itself gave impetus to the Civil Rights Movement. A young pastor from Atlanta, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., would help to organize the boycott.
Parks’ former apartment is an important aspect of her life, partly because it was in a segregated public housing project where many African Americans in Montgomery were forced to live. The old apartment had been furnished with period pieces to reflect what it was like in Montgomery at the time she lived there. “It was a type of small museum,” Hester said. Parks’ old sewing machine and some furniture were spared by the thieves, but the vandals damaged some walls, the floor and the bathroom. Housing officials had been studying the idea of improving the way visitors can see Parks’ former apartment and expanding the exhibits to other apartments nearby. Hester on Tuesday said it was not clear how the damage will affect those plans.
In August 1994, Parks was attacked and beaten in her Detroit apartment by a drug-addicted man, Joseph Skipper, who didn’t know who she was before entering. Skipper allegedly asked her: “Hey, aren’t you Rosa Parks?” to which she replied, “Yes.” She handed him $3 when he demanded money, and an additional $50 when he demanded more. Before fleeing, Skipper struck Parks in the face. He was later arrested, charged and sentenced to eight to 15 years in prison. The Detroit News in 2005 reported that Skipper cried and repeatedly apologized for the attack when he learned that Parks had died.
