MONTGOMERY—Troy University’s Rosa Parks Museum will celebrate Rosa Parks’ 100th birthday on Monday, Feb. 4, with an evening of art, poetry, and an official unveiling of the new Parks commemorative stamp by the U.S. Postal Service.

The celebration event will be held at 6 p.m. inside the Gold Room on the second floor of Whitley Hall at TROY’s Montgomery Campus. Admission is free and open to the public.

The evening’s events will include:

•      • National Book Award-winning poet Nikky Finney will read her poem “Red Velvet,” which is about Rosa Parks.
•      • Dr. Riche’ Richardson, an associate professor at the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University, will present a lecture entitled “Rosa Parks at 100.” A native of Montgomery, Richardson’s essays have been published in numerous journals such as “American Literature” and “Mississippi Quarterly." Her first book was “Black Masculinity and the U.S. South: From Uncle Tom to Gangsta,” and she has a book in progress exploring black femininity in the South.
•      • Museum Director Georgette Norman and Curator Daniel Neil will present the “Rosa Parks 100th Birthday Wishes Project.” For several months, the museum has collected more than 1,400 “wishes” for the future of the city and nation inspired by Parks’ life work from local students and other individuals. Many of these “wishes” have been turned into a series of silk screen posters, which will be presented to local elected officials and leaders for display around Montgomery.
•      • Bridgett Carol, Director of Marketing for the U.S. Postal Service Alabama District and Donnie Snipes, Postmaster for Montgomery, will unveil the new Rosa Parks commemorative stamp, one of several unveilings happening nationwide this day. 

For more information about this or other museum events, contact Museum Director Georgette Norman at (334) 241-8608, or  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .