Page 32 - aruba-today-20170826

A32 FEATURE
Saturday 26 auguSt 2017
Rosa Parks’ house may be returned to U.S. from Germany

By DAVID RISING
Associated Press university about putting it
BERLIN (AP) — Section by on display, but there’s no
section, American artist timeline yet on when the
Ryan Mendoza painstak- house may return.
ingly disassembled the His dream would be to see
small wood-frame home the derelict home recon-
of civil rights icon Rosa structed on the lawn of the
Parks after learning that White House with the bless-
the struggling city of De- ing of U.S. President Donald
troit was going to have it Trump.
demolished. He shipped it “Trump says that he’s not
across the Atlantic Ocean
and rebuilt it in the Ger- In this Wednesday, Aug. 23,
man capital of Berlin, sav- 2017 photo trees stay close
ing the home and creating to the rebuilt house of Rosa
a new tourist attraction. Parks in Berlin.
The house has been up in Associated Press
Berlin less than a year, but
after violence at a white
nationalist rally in Charlot-
tesville, Virginia, and the her brother and his family “The issue of racism is go-
growing call to remove — crammed into the tiny ing on, negative things are
Confederate monuments residence with more than going on and there are dif-
in the United States, the 15 people. ferent things, positive, that
New York native said it’s After the financial crisis of can be brought to light,
now clear to him that 2008 and Detroit’s dramat- not just physical monu-
Parks’ house needs to re- ic decline, Parks’ home ments,” she said. “The spirit
turn soon to the U.S. was abandoned and put is more important.”
“It’s actually become a ne- on a list for demolition. But Mendoza said even
cessity, as we see people Parks’ niece Rhea Mc- though the house is tucked
rising up and seeing things Cauley instead bought it away on his lot, it still draws
for what they are,” he said. from the city for $500 and curious onlookers daily —
“As Americans begin to un- donated it to Mendoza for including many Americans
derstand they have to re- preservation. In 2016, he — showing how important
contextualize these monu- and others took it carefully a symbol it is.
ments, the Confederate apart, then rebuilt it on the “Imagine if the house were
statues, there is a lack of lot in Berlin where his studio on a public setting in a
civil rights monuments to and home are. prominent city in the U.S.?”
balance things out.” Queen Yahna, a soul and he said. “That’s an educa-
Parks, who died in 2005, gospel singer from Phila- tional tool that shouldn’t
became a leading name delphia who now lives in
in the civil rights movement Berlin, performed for the
for refusing in 1955 to give crowd at the house’s offi- In this Wednesday, Aug. 23,
up her seat on a bus to a cial dedication in April. Vis- 2017 photo American artist
white passenger in Mont- iting the house this week, Ryan Mendoza poses dur-
ing an interview with the As-
gomery, Alabama. She she said it doesn’t matter sociated Press in front of the
moved to Detroit in 1957 to to her where the house is rebuilt house of Rosa Parks in
escape death threats and as long as Parks’ struggle is Berlin.
stayed in the house with remembered. Associated Press

be denied the American a racist. This would be a
people. They have to know wonderful moment for him
their past.” to redeem himself in the
He said a foundation has eyes of Americans,” Men-
offered to help pay the doza said. “He wants to
costs of moving it back to embrace all of America’s
the U.S., and he’s been in past. Why not embrace
talks with museums and a the house that Rosa Parks
once lived in?”
McCauley, Parks’ niece
In a June 15, 1999 file photo who still lives in Detroit, told
Rosa Parks smiles during a The Associated Press that
Capitol Hill ceremony where she would welcome the
Parks was honored with the
Congressional Gold Medal in home’s return to the U.S.
Washington. “We need all the help we
Associated Press can get, in light of all cur-
rent events,” she said.q