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SOURCE: Rosa Parks?
I found this large (11x17) photo in a closet of an old office in an abandoned skyscraper downtown. It had obviously hung on a wall at one point. After the sun set and I hopped back out onto the street (coughing out a few mouthfuls of asbestos dust and black mold) I brought it over to my wife's office where her coworker seemed to recognize most of the white guys and had guesses for the black guys. From left: Rep. Steny Hoyer, Rosa Parks, Rep. Thomas Foley (?), Rep. William Gray (?) (is is that her boss, a younger Conyers?), Rep. John Lewis (?), Rep. Richard Gephardt. I am assuming this was after Ms. parks received some kind of honor on the hill back in the early 1990s. I know she received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999, but the suits and youthful visage of now-grizzled Steny Hoyer make me think this was a bit earlier (also, the building where I found it was shuttered in 1997). There is a photo from the same meeting at Gephardt's site.
Rosa Parks worked in the Detroit office of Congressman John Conyers for many years, and the office building where I found it is really close to the building where Conyers' office is now. I wondered who in the abandoned, ramshackle office with its overturned desks and moldy carpet had once cherished this photo. Rosa herself?
A guy at a coffee shop told me the other day that he once delivered a pizza to Rosa Parks. She buzzed him into her building and then rode down the elevator to meet him. He says he then rode in the elevator up to her apartment where she retrieved her purse. He says she tried to tip him, but he declined, saying, "You just keep your money, Ms. Parks."
Leaving comments open in case anyone recognizes the congressmen in the photo.
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