Rosa Parks memorial statue is to be unveiled.

If it weren't for her, my childhood would not be awarded the grace of understanding there was oppression in the USA. No lie. I grew up in a town that was primarily Caucasian. Her story made it to my ears and heart, though.
By Richard Simon

February 22, 2013, 6:30 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Rosa Parks made history in 1955 (click here) by refusing to move to the back of the bus.  She will make history again next week when her statue is placed in the U.S. Capitol. 

It will be the first full-size statue of an African American in the Capitol collection of more than 180 statues, a popular tourist attraction.  There are busts of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sojourner Truth. A statue of Frederick Douglass is expected to be added soon.

"It’s another breakthrough for someone who has made so many of them possible,’’ House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) of the Parks statue.

Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), for whom Parks worked, said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, "As humble as she was, she would be overwhelmed by the fact that there would be a statue in Statuary Hall in her honor.’’  

President Obama is due to attend the unveiling Wednesday in what congressional leaders describe as an occasion to "recount a watershed event in our history."...