Woolworth's Museum to Honor Rosa ParksThursday
By LORRAINE AHEARN, Staff Writer

January 26, 1995

The woman whose dignity sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott - and the modern civil rights movement - will be honored next week in Greensboro by the organizers of the Woolworth's museum.

Rosa Parks, the 81-year-old woman who became the mother of the civil rights movement by refusing to step to the back of the bus, will attend Wednesday morning's memorial at the Elm Street lunch counter. She will also be the first recipient of the new Alston-Jones International Civil and Human Rights Award at a banquet Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m.

The banquet, sponsored by the Sit-In Movement Inc., is to raise money for the International Civil Rights Museum planned at the site of the historic 1960 Woolworth's sit-in. Parks, today a Detroit resident, will be here Tuesday to promote her new book Quiet Strength.

"We just want to pay homage to her for all the struggles she went through for the civil rights movement," said Guilford County Commissioner Melvin "Skip" Alston, foundation director. "Just by sitting down, she and the A&T students here in Greensboro shook the nation."

The guest speaker at Wednesday's banquet at Koury Convention Center will be Benjamin Hooks, former NAACP director. Other award recipients will be the first four sit-in participants and some of those who worked behind the scenes: J. Kenneth Lee, Dr. George Simkins, Ralph Johns and Ezzell Blair Sr.

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