Alabama dedicates historic monuments to Rosa Parks and Helen Keller

Don’t miss the full story, whose reporting from Kim Chandler at The Associated Press is the basis of this AI-assisted article.

Statues of Rosa Parks and Helen Keller were unveiled recently on the Alabama Capitol grounds, marking the first monuments honoring women at the historic site.

Some key facts:

• Rosa Parks and Helen Keller are the first women to have statues installed on the Alabama Capitol lawn.

• The monuments were approved by Alabama lawmakers in 2019 and completed by the Alabama Women’s Tribute Statue Commission more than six years later.

• Rosa Parks was arrested on Dec. 1, 1955, when she refused to leave her bus seat for a White passenger, catalyzing the yearlong Montgomery bus boycott.

• Helen Keller was born in 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama, and became deaf and blind before her second birthday after a serious illness.

• The Parks statue is positioned just across the Capitol steps from a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

• Alabama law forbids the removal of longstanding monuments, which is why Confederate memorials remain despite more than 480 symbols being removed nationwide since 2015.

• Gov. Kay Ivey, the nation’s longest-serving female governor, said Parks and Keller “rose to shape history through quiet strength and unwavering conviction.”

• Keller’s statue depicts her sitting on a bench with a book containing instructions in text and Braille, inviting visitors to sit with her and place their face in her outstretched hand.

READ MORE: Rosa Parks and Helen Keller statues unveiled at the Alabama Capitol